711.94/2624
Memorandum by the Counselor of Embassy in Japan (Dooman)
Despatch of Tankers Carrying Supplies of Oil From the United States to Vladivostok
This afternoon the Director of the American Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivered orally to me the following message to be conveyed to the Ambassador:
The Japanese Ambassador in Washington was instructed by telegraph late last night to call on the Secretary of State and to inform him that the trend of the internal situation in Japan is causing the most serious concern and may develop into one of the utmost gravity largely as a result of the despatch by the American Government of supplies of oil to the Far Eastern ports of the Soviet Union. The Ambassador was urgently to request that the American tankers now en route be recalled pending the decision on the proposal recently made by the Japanese Government for a meeting between the President [Page 569] and the Japanese Prime Minister, and also to urge upon the United States Government the desirability of giving favorable consideration to the holding of such a meeting as soon as possible.
The Foreign Minister expressed the hope that the American Ambassador would find it possible to support the request that the Japanese Ambassador had been instructed to make to the Secretary. If Mr. Grew did not consider it possible to support the recommendation that the tankers be recalled, the Foreign Minister hoped that the Ambassador would feel in a position to recommend that the tankers be routed so as to avoid passing through the Straits of Soya and Tsugaru and to proceed to Vladivostok through the Kurile Straits running between Kamchatka and the most northerly of the Kurile Islands and thence between the island of Saghalien and the continent via the Straits of Tartary. The Foreign Minister was much disturbed by the strong resentment felt among certain elements in Japan at the anticipated passage of tankers bearing supplies of gasoline which might be employed against Japan through waters contiguous to Japan and he hoped that Mr. Grew would realize that Japan, entirely apart from the relations between Japan and the Soviet Union established by the Neutrality Pact, would be placed in an awkward position through the shipment under the nose of Japan of supplies to the Soviet Union.
Having delivered the foregoing message to be transmitted to the Ambassador, the Director of the American Bureau in emphasizing its importance stated that the internal situation in Japan was extremely grave and that should there be any premature disclosure at this time of the recent Japanese proposal while these tankers were en route to Vladivostok it would probably bring about further attempts on the lives of leading members of the Japanese Government.
In concluding the conversation Mr. Terasaki mentioned that the Minister for Foreign Affairs would probably ask the Ambassador to call on him either on the following day August 28 or on August 29.