ONE WORLD : ONE WAR

and Consulate in for cocktails, about sixty people. Dooman made a
very nice little speech about Alice and myself which moved us very
much. Miss Coles, Dooman, Williams, Crocker, Bohlen, Turner,
Benninghoff, Cooper, and Espy have all moved in to the Embassy,
since they live outside the compound, and we have found beds for
all and they will take most of their meals with us. Those who have
apartments in the apartment houses are giving shake-downs to any-
one who needs a bed or a mattress on the floor. We are a weU-
united and co-operative group, and a congenial one, which is very
helpful at times like these. Everyone was pretty well exhausted
to-night, the first day of war with Japan, the only country, so far
as I know, that ever declared war on us.

Of course when I saw Togo in the early morning of the 8th he
must already have known of the outbreak of war, but he said nothing
about it. If any indication was given at all, it was in his gesture
when he came into the room and slapped down on the table the
Japanese reply to our recent draft proposal, as much as to say that
this was final. But his manner was, as usual, wholly imperturbable,
and on rising after our talk he made a pleasant little speech of thanks
for my co-operation. On leaving his official residence I had not the
slightest feeling that a break had occurred, except for a break in the
conversations. Togo must have sensed that I had no suspicions
whatever as to what had occurred. The conversations had broken
down once before, when the Japanese went into Indo-China, yet
they were later resumed. The surprise of the Blitzkrieg was complete
so far as we in the Embassy were concerned, except for my prog-
nostication on November 3 that war might come " with dangerous
and dramatic suddenness."

It is significant that the Department's 818, December 6, 9 p.m.,
communicating the President's message to the Emperor, was actually
received at the central telegraph office in Tokyo at noon on the
7th but was not delivered until 10.30 that evening. The notation
in Japanese on the telegram made this clear.

PRISONERS OF JAPAN
December 9, 1941

The Superintendent-General of the Metropolitan Police, Tsukio
Tomeoka, called on me this morning with an aide and interpreter,
although Turner did the interpreting, and said that he wished to
do everything possible for our comfort and convenience. He was
very affable. The subsequent actions and attitude of the police, who
treated us in every respect^s prisoners, if not as criminal prisoners,
invading at will the chancery, the apartment houses, and even the
Embassy residence and making every difficulty in our getting food
and clothing from outside, were no doubt due to orders from
subordinate officers and to the utter stupidity of the police guard
in interpreting their instructions without the slightest effort to