Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

11.
Further Indications of
Impending Japanese Action
Tokyo: “Utterly Impossible for
Japan to Accept” U.S. Terms
Page One of Th e New York Times reported on December 5
that Tokyo “was struck as by a bombshell . . . with the revelation
of the substance of the Japanese-American negotiations.”
Japan’s government-controlled news agency, Domei, had
announced, “It is utterly impossible for Japan to accept the stipulations
of the American document” presented to the two Japanese
ambassadors on November 26 by Secretary of State Hull. Domei
was owned by the Japanese government and “carefully controlled
by the Japanese Government.” Any Domei report was “simply
what the Japanese Government wanted to have passed on to
the public.” 1 Th e terms of the U.S. document were not reported.
However, according to the story, “a lively debate” had taken place
1 79th Cong., 1st sess. Joint (Congressional) Committee on the Investigation
of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Pearl Harbor Attack, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Offi ce, 1946), part 2, p. 688, Testimony of Joseph
C. Grew, U.S. Ambassador to Japan.
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