894.85/657: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, November 18,
1941—6 p.m.
[Received November 18—6:49 a.m.]
1820. The Foreign Office today handed to a member of my staff an “oral”
statement as follows:
- “1. The Japanese Government wishes to despatch the M. S. Tatuta Maru as a government-requisitioned
ship to Los Angeles and Balboa via Honolulu, leaving Yokohama on
or around the 25th instant.
- 2. With regard to the voyage of the Tatuta
Maru, the Imperial Japanese Government wishes that the
Government of the United States would guarantee, on the same
conditions as the last voyage of the said ship, freedom of
ingress and egress of the ports mentioned above and the
necessary supplies such as fuel, water, and food, of which
payment would be made from the Japanese frozen funds in the
United States.
- 3. The Japanese Government is prepared to accord every
possible facility to those American nationals who wish to return
to the United States on the Tatuta Maru.
Since it is desirable to notify the American nationals in Japan
with enough time, it is hoped that the United States Embassy
would advise its Government to reply favorably at the earliest
possible opportunity [concerning the visit of the?] vessel to
Balboa the Foreign Office stated that [because of the?]
enforcement against Japanese nationals residing in Panama of the
Panamanian occupation law the Japanese Government desires to
provide its nationals with transportation for their return to
Japan. The hope was expressed that the American Government
would, if only from a humanitarian point of view, assent to the
entry of the vessel into Balboa.”
The Embassy recommends favorable consideration.
