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

December 6, Part 2 279
perfectly open to anybody.” 34 It left Washington at 9:00 in the
evening of December 6. Our ambassador in Japan, Joseph C.
Grew, was instructed “to communicate the president’s message to
the Japanese Emperor in such manner as deemed most appropriate
by the Ambassador and at the earliest possible moment.” 35 A
copy went also to Chiang Kai-Shek in China. 36
Roosevelt announced to the press and the world that he had
sent a message of peace to the Emperor. 37 However, the text of his
message was not released at the time.
Saturday Night, December 6-7,
at the White House
A meeting of FDR’s “inner circle” was held late Saturday
night, a meeting which must have lasted from about midnight
into the wee, small hours of December 7. With the president on
this occasion were Stark, Marshall, Knox, Stimson, and Hopkins.
Th ese fi ve men “spent most of the night . . . at the White House
with FDR, all waiting for what they knew was coming after those
intercepts.” 38
As far as we know, no record was made of their conversation.
In view of the intelligence they had been receiving of a massive
buildup of Japanese forces in the southwest Pacifi c, apparently
headed for Th ailand, Malaya, or British or Dutch territory, we
can only imagine what they discussed. Th e six men in the White
34 Joint Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack, part 2, p. 692, Grew testimony before
the Joint Committee.
35 Department of State, Japan: 1931–1941, p. 784n. See also Department of
State, Far East: 1941, p. 726n.
36 Department of State, Th e Far East, p. 727.
37 Department of State, Japan: 1931–1941, p. 784n. See also Department of
State, Th e Far East, p. 726n.
38 Letter from James G. Stahlman to Admiral Kemp Tolley, USN (Ret.),
November 26, 1973. Copy in author’s fi les.