711.94/2093
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Ambassador of Japan called at my hotel apartment at his request. He immediately handed me a proposed amendment, copy attached,23 to the original draft which we have been discussing for some days.
I, of course, was expecting the Ambassador to have other and more important things to talk about, but he disclosed nothing. We had some general conversation, but there was no real reference to the questions at issue except the question of whether this country would be in danger from the war in Europe. Following this we had some discussion as to the facts constituting self-defense on the part of the United States. The Ambassador indicated his views and that of his country that we would not be in danger. I thereupon repeated to him the facts and circumstances, as set forth in my speech of three weeks ago,24 as irrefutable evidence of the fact that this hemisphere [Page 426] and this country would be and are in serious and imminent danger; that the attack would come on South America, and that the entire safety of this hemisphere and this country from Hitler’s movement of unlimited military conquest would depend on whether he conquers Great Britain with a real probability or possibility that he would then come into control of the high seas. The Ambassador appeared and talked as though he were impressed with these facts and conclusions. He reiterated that nobody in his country wanted war with this country except a few scattered individuals and small groups; that his country did not desire or intend to go south with military force.
He then made reference to what he considered the somewhat difficult question of dealing with the attitude of this Government towards the war, and that of Japan towards the war under the Tripartite Agreement.
I remarked that the Ambassador had undoubtedly observed in the press that Ambassador Grew had called on Matsuoka, and I added that Ambassador Grew had reported to me that Matsuoka was more or less offensive in his references to this country.24a I added that I, of course, knew the type of politician Matsuoka is and the loose and often bluffing language he uses, and, therefore, I did not know whether he would undertake to hinder, or, if possible, defeat further conversations along the lines that we have been conducting them. The Ambassador laughed at the Matsuoka reference and made some remarks himself about Matsuoka being out for his own interest politically, and laughed again at the idea of Matsuoka controlling the situation so as to defeat any further conversations looking towards the question of whether negotiations would be permissible.