740.0011 P. W./312: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 25—6:25 p.m.]
1082. 1. The new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Admiral Toyoda, today received the diplomatic chiefs of mission individually. In opening our conversation the Minister said that his appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs had come as a great surprise and that as he was an amateur at diplomacy he would count upon my assistance. He then said that the Tripartite Alliance stands and that Japanese policy is based upon that pact. He made no further reference to policy.
2. For my part I said that I had been working for nine years to build up something permanently constructive in American-Japanese relations and that I hoped for the Minister’s collaboration in continuing [Page 344] those efforts. I said that an improvement in our relations was not only important to the United States but that Japan has everything to gain from such an improvement. It must be remembered, however, that friendship is not a one-way street.
3. The Minister thanked me for what I had said and assured me of his collaboration. He said that as soon as he had finished receiving the chiefs of mission today he would like to have a longer talk with me this evening and would let me know as soon as he was free.57 On my departure he took my hand in both of his in a gesture of friendship.
- For memorandum of this second interview, see Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 317.↩