Saburō Kurusu As Imperial Japan ' s ambassador to Germany from 1939 to November 1941 , he signed the Tripartite Pact along with the foreign ministers of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on September 27 , 1940 . Biography . Kurusu was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1883 . He graduated from Tokyo Commercial College ( now Hitotsubashi University ) in 1909 . The following year , he entered diplomatic service and , in 1914 , first came to the United States as the Japanese Consul in Chicago . During his six - year service in Chicago , Kurusu married Alice Jay Little . He had three children , a son Ryō , and a daughter Jaye were both born in the United States ; another daughter , Teruko Pia , was born in Italy in 1926 . Both daughters married Americans and moved back to the United States . The only son , Captain Ryo Kurusu was killed in a freak accident in 1945 . Kurusu did not have any other son , although an American newspaper erroneously reported " his son , Captain Makoto " Norman " Kurusu , was killed in a dogfight over Chiba . " After Saburo ' s death , Alice Kurusu adopted a girl . Early foreign service experience included posts in Chile , Italy , Germany and Peru . As Japanese Consul in Lima , Peru in 1930 , he sought to defuse anti - Japanese violence by promoting Japanese immigrant settlements in the rural highlands rather than in urban Lima . Kurusu was promoted to director of the Foreign Office Commerce Bureau to negotiate trade agreements . In 1937 , he was made ambassador to Belgium , and two years later the ambassador to Germany . On September 27 , 1940 , Kurusu signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin on behalf of the Japanese Empire , entering into a 10 - year military and economic treaty between Germany , Italy and Japan . After peace talks between the United States and Japan bogged down in 1941 , Kurusu was dispatched as the Imperial government ' s " special envoy " . Arriving in Washington on November 15 , Kurusu told newsmen " I am indeed glad to be here in your nation ' s capital . I extend greetings to all from the bottom of my heart . " Two days later , Secretary of State Cordell Hull brought Kurusu to the White House to meet with President Roosevelt . On November 20 , Kurusu presented Japan ' s proposal that the United States cease aid to China and resume trade relations that had been frozen in December 1939 . On November 26 , Hull conveyed President Roosevelt ' s demands for Japan to withdraw its troops from China and to sever its Axis ties with Germany and Italy as a condition for peace . Kurusu reviewed the demand and replied , " If this is the attitude of the American government , I don ' t see how an agreement is possible . Tokyo will throw up its hands at this . " Over the next three weeks , Kurusu and Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura continued to confer with Hull while awaiting Japan ' s reply . On the afternoon of December 7 Kurusu delivered Japan ' s reply , breaking relations and closing with the statement that " The immutable policy of Japan is to promote world peace . " At that moment , the bombing of Pearl Harbor had commenced . Unaware of what was happening , news reporters questioned Kurusu and Nomura as they left Hull ' s office . " Is this your last conference ? " one asked , and an unsmiling Nomura had no answer . " Will the embassy issue a statement later ? " asked another , and Kurusu replied , " I don ' t know . " In addressing Congress the next day , President Roosevelt said , " Indeed , one hour after Japanese squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu , the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message . " After the bombing of Pearl Harbor , Kurusu was interned in the United States at Hot Springs , Virginia , until the United States and Japan negotiated an exchange of their diplomatic personnel and citizens . In June 1942 , Kurusu sailed to Mozambique on board the ocean liner " MS Gripsholm " , which then brought back American ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew and other Americans who had been interned in Japan . Following the Allied victory in Japan , the American military tribunal elected in February , 1946 , not to prosecute either Kurusu or Nomura . Kurusu was a visiting professor at Tokyo University and lived at a country estate in Karuizawa with his wife Alice . Like Nomura , Kurusu maintained for the rest of his life that he had been unaware of the plans for Pearl Harbor . " It must seem absurd to you , " he told Frank Robertson of INS , " but it ' s true . The militarists kept their secret extremely well . " He died at the age of 68 .