[Secret]
From: Tokyo
To: Berlin
November 30, 1941
Purple
#986 (Strictly Secret) (To be handled in Government Code)
(Part 1 of 2) (Secret outside the Department)
1.
Japan-American negotiations were commenced the middle of April of this year.
Over a period of half a year they have been continued. Within that period the
Imperial Government adamantly stuck to the Tri-Partite Alliance as the
cornerstone of its national policy regardless of the vicissitudes of the
international situation. In the adjustment of diplomatic relations between
Japan and the United States, she has based her hopes for a solution definitely
within the scope of that alliance. With the intent of restraining the United
States from participating in the war, she boldly assumed the attitude of
carrying through these negotiations.
2.
Therefore, the present cabinet, in line with your message, with the view of
defending the Empire's existence and integrity on a just and equitable basis,
has continued the negotiations carried on in the past. However, their views and
ours on the question of the evacuation of troops, upon which the negotiations
rested (they demanded the evacuation of Imperial troops from China and French
Indo-China), were completely in opposition to each other.
Judging
from the course of the negotiations that have been going on, we first came to
loggerheads when the United States, in keeping with its traditional ideological
tendency of managing international relations, re-emphasized her fundamental
reliance upon this traditional policy in the conversations carried on between the
United States and England in the Atlantic Ocean. The motive of the United
States in all this was brought out by her desire to prevent the establishment
of a new order by Japan, Germany, and Italy in Europe and in the Far East (that
is to say, the aims of the Tri-Partite Alliance). As long as the Empire of
Japan was in alliance with Germany and Italy, there could be no maintenance of
friendly relations between Japan and the United States was the stand they took.
From this point of view, they began to demonstrate a tendency to demand the
divorce of the Imperial Government from the Tri-Partite Alliance. This was
brought out at the last meeting. That is to say that it has only been in the
negotiations of the last few days that it has become gradually more and more
clear that the Imperial Government could no longer continue negotiations with
the United States. It became clear, too, that a continuation of negotiations
would inevitably be detrimental to our cause.
Army 25554 Trans. 12/1/41 (NR)
[Secret]
From: Tokyo
To: Berlin
November 30, 1941
Purple
#986. (Part 2 of 2)
3.
The proposal presented by the United States on the 26th made this attitude of theirs
clearer than ever. In it there is one insulting clause which says that no
matter what treaty either party enters into with a third power it will not be
interpreted as having any bearing upon the basic object of this treaty, namely
the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. This means specifically the
Three-Power Pact. It means that in case the United States enters the European
war at any time the Japanese Empire will not be allowed to give assistance to
Germany and Italy. It is clearly a trick. This clause alone, let alone others,
makes it impossible to find any basis in the American proposal for
negotiations. What is more, before the United States brought forth this plan,
they conferred with England, Australia, the Netherlands, and China—they did so repeatedly.
Therefore, it is clear that the United States is now in collusion with those
nations end has decided to regard Japan, along with Germany and Italy, as an
enemy.
Army 25555 Trans. 12-1-41 (NR)
(EXHIBITS
OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 1 INTERCEPTED DIPLOMATIC MESSAGES SENT BY THE
JAPANESE GOVERNMENT BETWEEN JULY l AND DECEMBER 8, 1941)