711.94/975: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
136. Your 173, August 7, 9 p.m. It is desired that on the occasion of your next call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs in connection with some other matter, which it is hoped will be in the near future, you refer orally and informally to the Tanaka article as translated [Page 679] and published by the Japan Advertiser and state that the article was reproduced in large part by the New York Times and that it drew unfavorable comment in the American press. Please add, in such manner that Hirota will clearly understand that a friendly and informal remonstrance is being made, a statement along lines as follows:
We have noted with gratification that there has been a conspicuous subsidence of writings published in Japan calculated to injure relations between the United States and Japan, and we assume that this condition is largely due to appropriate measures taken by the Foreign Minister and by the Japanese Government. Statements by such a prominent Japanese as General Tanaka which are reasonably open to the interpretation that they characterize action and statements of the President of the United States as “insolent behavior” can only operate toward gratuitous injury to the friendly relations between the two countries.