Evening star., 1948-02-21
The Memoirs of CordeH Hull
By CordeII Hull
Assisted by Andrvs Berdins)
ruApTER YYTV

The proposal I handed Ambas.
sadors Nomura and Kurusu on No.
vember 26 (the 10-point peace set.
tlement plan) was an honest effort
to keep our conversations going
with the forlorn hope that even al
this ultimate minute little COM
mon sense might filter into the
military minds in Tokyo.
Later on, japanese propaganda
especially after Japan had begun to
suffer serious defeats-tried to dis
tort our memorandum of November
26 by calling it an "ultimatum. u
This was in line with a well-known
Japanese characteristic of utilizing
completely false pretexts to delude
their people and gain their support
for military depredations.
Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu
themselves recognized that the re-
sponsibility for a rupture with us
would be Japan's, and, in a message
to Tokyo on that same day, No
vember 26, which our Army and
Navy intercepted and decoded, sug-
gested an attempt be made to shift
that responsibility.
Should we," they said, during
the course of these conversations,
deliberately enter into our scheduled
operations, there Is great danger
that the responsibility for the rup-
ture of negotiations will be cast
upon us. There have been times
in the past when she (the United
States) could have considered dis
continuing conversations because OF
our invasion of French Indo-C China.
Now, should we, without clarifying
our intentions, force a rupture in
our negotiations and suddenly enter
upon independent operations, there
is great fear that she may use such
a thing as that as counterpropa-
ganda against U.s."
Ominous Message Received.
An ominous indication of what
was coming appeared in an inter-
cepted message from Foreign Min
lister Togo to Nomura and Kurusu
on November %. This said that the
negotiations with us would be rup-
tured.
However" it went on, II do not
wish you to give the impression that
the negotiations are broken of.
Merely say to them that you are
awaiting instructions and that, al
though the opinions Of your gov
ernment are not yet clear to you,
to your own way of thinking the
imperial government has always
made Just claims and has borne
great sacrifices for the sake of peace
in the Pacific"
In other words, the second phase
of Kurusu's mission was at hand.
The first had been to push us into
accepting Japan's overlordship in
the Orient. That having failed, the
second was to lull us with talk until
the moment the Japanese military
were ready to strike.
On November % extracts were
brought to me from explosive
speeches Premier TOTO and Foreign
Minister Togo were to deliver on
November 80 under the sponsorship
of the Imperial Rule Assistance As
sociation and the "Great Japan
East Asia League" Part Of Tojo's
text read:
1.-THE fact that Chang Kai-shek
is dancing to the tune Of Britain,
America and communism at the ex-
pense of able-bodied and promising
young men in his futile resistance
against Japan is only due to the
desire of Britain and the United
States to fish in the troubled waters
of East Asia by pitting the East
Asiatic peoples against each other
and to grasp the hegemony of East
Asia. 80
"For the honor and pride of man
kind we must purge this sort OF
practice from East Asia with ven
geance."
After thinking this over, discuss
ing it with our military authorities
and our Far Eastern experts, and
going over again the various reports
we had been receiving concerning
new Japanese movements in 1ndo-
China, telephoned the President
at Warm Springs that night, No
vember 20. I emphasized the i'm
minent danger of a japanese attack
and advised him to advance the
date of his return to Washington.
Mr.. Roosevelt agreed.
Mr.. Roosevelt reached Washing
ton on Monday morning, December
l. A short time before his arrival
Nomura and Kurusu called on me
at the State Department to ask why
the President was returning to the
Capital in advance Of schedule. The
Ambassadors obviously were wor-
ried over the probability that the
Presidents rushing back to Wash
ington conf1icted with their instruc-