740.0011 P. W./332: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 27—5:50 p.m.]
1105. In my interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs today I took the occasion to give him a copy of the Department’s press telegram no. 420, July 2361 with two or three minor deletions. Admiral Toyoda said that he was very glad to have the telegram because he received few press reports from Japanese officials in the United States. I said that I sent to Washington daily reports on the press in Japan and I thought it equally important that the Minister should be in a position to gauge American public opinion by carefully following our own press. The Minister replied that there is a great difference in the press of the two countries because the Japanese press, being controlled by the Government, does not necessarily represent Japanese public opinion. He said that he was now doing his best to restrain the Japanese press from publishing heated attacks on the United States. I replied that if the American Government were to attempt to exert a similar restraint the result would undoubtedly prove to be the reverse of that intended.
- Not printed.↩