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

Air Raid, Pearl Harbor! This is No Drill! 325
When Nomura and Kurusu entered, Hull received them
“coldly and did not ask them to sit down.” Nomura handed Hull
his government’s note. Hull “naturally could give no indication”
that he already knew its contents, so he “made a pretense” of
glancing through it. When he had fi nished skimming the pages,
he eyed Nomura. “I must say,” Hull said,
that in all my conversations with you during the last nine
months I have never uttered one word of untruth. Th is is borne
out absolutely by the record. In all my fi fty years of public
service I have never seen a document that was more crowded
with infamous falsehoods and distortions—infamous falsehoods
and distortions on a scale so huge that I never imagined
until today that any Government on this planet was capable of
uttering them. 51
Nomura’s face was “impassive.” He seemed to be “under great
emotional strain.” Hull thought Nomura was about to speak, but
Hull stopped him with a motion of his hand and nodded toward
the door. “Th e Ambassadors turned without a word and walked
out, their heads down.” 52
The Attack News Reaches
Secretary of War Stimson
Th e president telephoned Stimson at his home at just about
2:00 p.m. Stimson was still at lunch. “[I]n a rather excited voice,”
the President asked, “Have you heard the news?”
51 Ibid. Also Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of
the United States: Japan, 1931–1941 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Offi ce, 1943), vol. 2, pp. 786–87, and Department of State, Peace and
War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Offi ce, 1943), pp. 831–32.
52 Hull, Memoirs, pp. 1096–97.