Office of the Historian

893.0146/846

The Director of Naval Intelligence (Anderson) to the Chief of Naval Operations (Stark)55

Op–16–F–2
Washington, 8 June, 1940.

Memorandum for the Chief of Naval Operations

1.
Thoroughly reliable information is at hand that the Japanese Government has determined on the following courses of action in China in the event Italy enters the war:
(a)
Use force to remove or disarm the European belligerents’ forces in China if any fighting occurs between them.
(b)
Reissue the warning of 5 September 1940 to France and Britain regarding maintenance of peace and withdrawal of armed forces.56
(c)
Issue the same warning to Italy, after first confidentially informing her and negotiating and arranging for withdrawal of Italian troops on condition that France and Britain evacuate.
2.
Japan is planning the above steps in secret with a view to anticipating untoward incidents and the spread of the war to the Far East.
W. S. Anderson
  1. Copy transmitted to the Department by the Navy Department.↩
  2. See telegram No. 458, September 5, 1939, 7 p.m., from the Chargé in Japan, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 9.↩