388 ONE WORLD ! TWO WARS

running somewhat as follows—the United States never had any
intention of coming to any agreement with Japan ; it has now got
from Japan an exposition of Japanese policies and objectives;
those policies and objectives are not in line with American policies
and objectives ; and there is therefore justification for refusing
to make an agreement with Japan and for continuing to maintain
an attitude of quasi-hostility against Japan.

I told Mr. Ushiba that there was no basis for any such conjecture.
I recalled that the memorandum of October 2 referred to the
reaction of the American public to reports that conversations
with Japan were taking place and that the statement was made
that, although the American Government was no less eager than
the Japanese Government to have brought about settlement of
Pacific problems, public opinion in the United States was such as
to render necessary a meeting of minds on certain fundamental
points prior to the opening of formal negotiations.

Mr. Ushiba asked whether we had received the actual text of
the memorandum. The summary (which I had allowed him to
read on October 4) shown to him by me was business-like and
objective in tone, but the actual memorandum was, he said,
" extremely disagreeable." It was argumentative and preceptive,
it was quite uncompromising, and it contained no suggestion or
indication calculated to be helpful to the Japanese Government
towards meeting the desires of the American Government. Citing
the reference to attitudes towards the European war, he put the
rhetorical question, Why was there not provided some indication
of the kind of undertaking the Japanese Government was expected
to give ?

In conclusion, Mr. Ushiba expressed the thought that the only
thing left for the Japanese Government was to ask the American
Government to give specifications with regard to the character o
the undertakings which Japan was desired to give, and that if a
clear-cut reply was not forthcoming to bring the conversations
to an end.1

Meanwhile, I had called upon the Foreign Minister at his request
this morning. He began by informing me that the text of the memo-
randum handed to the Japanese Ambassador on October 2 by the
Secretary of State had been received and was being carefully studied,
In reply to the Minister's question whether I would make any com-
ments on the memorandum, I said that until I had had an opportunity
to study the full text, the Embassy having received a resume only,
I would prefer to make no observations.

Admiral Toyoda then told me that he was informed of my private

1 For a clear conception of the position of the Government of the United States
in the situation dealt with in the diary from the Tokyo angle, it is important to
study the memorandum of May 19, 1942, prepared in the Department of State
and published in Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan ; 1931-19411 page 325.