REPORTS OF IMPENDING RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR	345
ranging itself on the side of aggressor nations whose aims were to
conquer the whole world.
As Matsuoka, who was then ostensibly confined to his bed by ill-
ness, had resigned on the previous evening, and as his successor took
over very shortly thereafter the foregoing communication was in all
probability his last gasp as Foreign Minister and its vitriolic nature
was quite in keeping with Matsuoka's bellicose attitude towards the
United States during the greater part of our association over the
past year. He died, politically, true to form, and his final com-
munication terminated an interesting period in the intensely interesting
diplomacy of these times.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ASKS PREMIER KONOYE TO
DENY REPORTS OF IMPENDING RUSSO-JAPANESE
WAR
Message sent by the Secretary of State at the specific request of
the President for delivery to His Excellency the Prime Minister
of Japan, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, dated July 4, 1941.
From a variety of sources reports are reaching the Government of
the United States that it is the intention of the Japanese Government
to enter upon hostilities against the Soviet Union,
As is well known to the Japanese Government, the maintenance
and preservation of peace in the area of the Pacific have been the
earnest desire of the American Government, which has contributed
its greatest efforts to the achievement of that high purpose.
From statements made in recent months by the Japanese Am-
bassador in Washington, Admiral Nomura, to the Secretary of State,
Mr. Hull, in the course of conversation between them, as well as
from the utterances of responsible Japanese officials, the Govern-
ment of the United States has derived the hope that it was also the
desire of the Government of Japan to maintain and preserve peace
in the area of the Pacific. The reports which are now reaching the
American Government are so completely contrary to those state*
ments and utterances that the Government of theUnited States finds
it very difficult to believe in the truth of those reports.
Should Japan enter upon a course of military aggression and con-
quest it stands to reason that such action would render illusory the
cherished hope of the American Government, which it understood
was shared by the Japanese Government, that peace in the Pacific
area, far from being farther upset, might now indeed be strengthened
and made more secure.
It is the earnest hope of the Government of the United States that
the reports of Japan's decision to enter upon hostilities against the
Soviet Union are not based upon fact, and an assurance to that effect
from His Excellency the Prime Minister of Japan would be deeply
appreciated by the Government of the United States.