[Secret]
From: Tokyo
To: Washington
November 24, 1941
Purple (Very Urgent)
#821 (Government Code)
1.
It seems that the United States as well as England, Australia, and the
Netherlands is not satisfied with evacuation merely from the Southern part of
French Indo-China. We have gone out of our way to venture this proposal in
order to break the deadlock. We absolutely cannot make any further concessions.
2.
Our expectations, as I told you in my #798, [b] go beyond the restoration of
Japan-American trade and a return to the situation prior to the exercise of the
freezing legislation and require the realization of all points of Proposal B
with the exception of clauses 6 and 7. Therefore, our demand for a cessation of
aid to CHIANG (the acquisition of Netherlands Indies goods and at the same time
the supply of American petroleum to Japan as well) is a most essential
condition. In view of the fact that this is a just demand, the fact that the
government of the United States finds it hard to accept it makes us here in
Japan suffer inordinately. Therefore, on the basis of what I told you in my
#816, [c] as well as all that has gone before, please make every effort to
persuade the Government of the United States.
3.
Insofar as what we propose in Proposal B is concerned, the United States has
misconstrued it as our demand. We here in Japan, in view of the extremely
critical situation, only hope most earnestly for a speedy settlement.
Naturally, that's all we want. Speaking further on this, it is necessary to
warn the United States against enticing England, Australia, the Netherlands,
etc., in paving the way for a joint hostile set-up. As you have written, we
would like to secure the agreement of other competent countries in accordance
with the gist of my #731 [d] at the same time Japan and the United States reach
an understanding.
Army 25176 Trans. 11/24/41 (S)
[a]Not available. [Note: There was no superscript "a" in the text used for the electronic version. We will check other versions of this message as times permits. LWJ]
[b] S.I.S. #25040 which tells Ambassador NOMURA to present Proposal B to the U. S. Government and says that no further concessions will be made.
[c] See S.I.S. #25175.
[d] S.I.S. #24333 in which Tokyo instructs Washington to impress upon the American officials the importance of having Great Britain and the Netherlands also agree to the proposals.
(EXHIBITS OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 1 INTERCEPTED DIPLOMATIC MESSAGES SENT BY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT BETWEEN JULY l AND DECEMBER 8, 1941)