[Secret]
From: Washington (Nomura)
To: Tokyo
November 28, 1941
Purple (Priority)
#1209. To be handled in Government Code.
What
the Imperial Government must, of course, consider is what Great Britain,
Australia, the Netherlands and China, egged on by the United States, will do in
case the Imperial forces invade Thailand. Even supposing there is no armed
collision with British forces, in the Oral Statement of President ROOSEVELT on
the 17th of this month he prophesied that suitable action would be taken
immediately in case Japan carries on any further penetration beyond French
Indo-China. Moreover, newspaper reports at present would tend to lead to the
conclusion that, even though England and the United States might not oppose us
militarily within Thai, the United States assisting all nations concerned would
adopt the policy of so-called joint defense throughout the whole southwestern
Pacific area; thus, as I said in my #1204 [a], there is no slight possibility
that she might occupy the Netherlands Indies on the excuse that this action
would be necessary for purposes of defense. I am sure you already have all
these things in your mind, but in view of the gravity of the present situation,
I just wanted to remind you again.
25793 Trans. 12-6-41 (X)
[a] S.I.S. #25535 in which Ambassador NOMURA discusses the United States' occupation of Dutch Guiana and says it is believed that, depending upon the atmosphere at the time the Japanese-American relations break off, Britain and the United States may occupy the Netherlands East Indies. He says it is essential that the Japanese give careful consideration to this possibility.
(EXHIBITS OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 1 INTERCEPTED DIPLOMATIC MESSAGES SENT BY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT BETWEEN JULY l AND DECEMBER 8, 1941)