An historical oddity. The day before “the date which will live in infamy” President Roosevelt wrote a letter to Emperor Hirohito. Here is the text of the letter:
[WASHINGTON,]
December 6, 1941
Almost a century ago the President of the United States addressed to the Emperor of Japan a message extending an offer of friendship of the people of the United States to the people of Japan. That offer was accepted, and in the long period of unbroken peace and friendship which has followed, our respective nations, through the virtues of their peoples and the wisdom of their rulers have prospered and have substantially helped humanity.
Only in situations of extraordinary importance to our two countries need I address to Your Majesty messages on matters of state. I feel I should now so address you because of the deep and far-reaching emergency which appears to be in formation.
Developments are occurring in the Pacific area which threaten to deprive each of our nations and all humanity of the beneficial influence of the long peace between our two countries. These developments contain tragic possibilities.
The people of the United States, believing in peace and in the right of nations to live and let live have eagerly watched the conversations between our two Governments during these past months. We have hoped for a termination of the present conflict between Japan and China. We have hoped that a peace of the Pacific could be consummated in such a way that nationalities of many diverse peoples could exist side by side without fear of invasion; that unbearable burdens of armaments could be lifted for them all; and that all peoples would resume commerce without discrimination against or in favor of any nation.
I am certain that it will be clear to Your Majesty, as it is to me, that in seeking these great objectives both Japan and the United States should agree to eliminate any form of military threat. This seemed essential to the attainment of the high objectives.
More than a year ago Your Majesty’s Government concluded an agreement with the Vichy Government by which five or six thousand Japanese troops were permitted to enter into Northern French Indochina for the protection of Japanese troops which were operating against China further north. And this Spring and Summer the Vichy Government permitted further Japanese military forces to enter into Southern French Indochina for the common defense of French Indochina. I think I am correct in saying that no attack has been made upon Indochina, nor that any has been contemplated.
During the past few weeks it has become clear to the world that Japanese military, naval and air forces have been sent to Southern Indo-China in such large numbers as to create a reasonable doubt on the part of other nations that this continuing concentration in Indochina is not defensive in its character. Because these continuing concentrations in Indo-China have reached such large proportions and because they extend now to the southeast and the southwest corners of that Peninsula, it is only reasonable that the people of the Philippines,bof the hundreds of Islands of the East Indies, of Malaya and of Thailand itself are asking themselves whether these forces of Japan are preparing or intending to make an attack in one or more of these many directions.
I am sure that Your Majesty will understand that the fear of all these peoples is a legitimate fear in as much as it involves their peace and their national existence. I am sure that Your Majesty will understand why the people of the United States in such large numbers look askance at the establishment of military, naval and air bases manned and equipped so greatly as to constitute armed forces capable of measures of offense.
It is clear that a continuance of such a situation is unthinkable. None of the peoples whom I have spoken of above can sit either indefinitely or permanently on a keg of dynamite.
There is absolutely no thought on the part of the United States of invading Indo-China if every Japanese soldier or sailor were to be withdrawn therefrom. I think that we can obtain the same assurance from the Governments of the East Indies, the Governments of Malaya and. the Government of Thailand. I would even undertake to ask for the same assurance on the part of the Government of China. Thus a withdrawal of the Japanese forces from Indo-China would result in the assurance of peace throughout the whole of the South Pacific area.
I address myself to Your Majesty at this moment in the fervent hope that Your Majesty may, as I am doing, give thought in this definite emergency to ways of dispelling the dark clouds. I am confident that both of us, for the sake of the peoples not only of our own great countries but for the sake of humanity in neighboring territories, have a sacred duty to restore traditional amity and prevent further death and destruction in the world.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Hirohito received the message shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I truly wonder if Hirohito ever really received this letter from FDR.
We know that for the most part, the Emperor has likely been kept completely “in the dark” by the Imperial military “Deep State” about the already overextended reality of the Japanese military in China, and how they had already become significantly bogged down in China and were already dangerously growing short on oil and other necessary natural resources. The Imperial Japanese Army’s venture into Russian Siberia that ended in the Battle of Khalkin Gol in August, 1939 (sometimes called the battle of Khalkin River) was an utter crushing defeat for Imperial Japan, and likely its extent was concealed from him. We also know one of the chief supporting masterminds of the Pearl Harbor attack, truly fanatic Vice-Admiral Matome Ugaki (“The Last Kamikaze”), figured significantly in the attempted, fantastically desperate assassination plot against Hirohito in July-August, 1945. It is said that the extent of the destruction of the Imperial Japanese fleet at Midway and the subsequent massive losses of essentially their entire navy was also almost completely concealed from Hirohito throughout the war.
It is a fantastic contradiction that the very navy and its leadership who carried on all their ships sacred shrines to Hirohito as a god, at least some of them would be disposed to murder him 4 years later and blame the American OSS for their crime in 1945.
So we will never know what might have been in Dec, 1941, had Hirohito really received the letter from FDR and had he been adequately informed of US sincerity to avoid war.
The Emperor was all in favor of war with America until Japan began to lose. After the War there was a great cleansing of Japanese records so that the Emperor could be portrayed falsely as always an advocate of peace
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/launching-war-hirohito-and-pearl-harbor
The Emperor was all in favor of war with America until Japan began to lose.
I’m pretty sure that’s just a general fact of life. Everyone’s in favor of war until they start losing. 😉
Hirohito was actually an anomaly. Except for Emperor Meji, the Japanese Emperors were content to be figureheads. He also had plenty of advisors telling him that a war with the US could only end in defeat for Japan.
Donald McClarey is quite right. It is inconceivable that the Emperor was not kept informed of all facets of the war. No one would start a war without his consent and the war ended because he said it was time to accept the turn in events. He was allowed to keep the throne both as a measure to assure calm during the occupation and to act as a counterweight to communist expansion in Asia. We should also note that he destroyed his diaries before his death and that many government records have significant gaps regarding lines of authority during war time events.
Am I correct that “Indochina” = Vietnam ?
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, all ruled by France in 1941.
What Hirohito was actually told by Tojo and indirectly communicated to Yuzawa remains fully open to speculation: Was Hirohito told that the US was “strangling” Imperial Japan? Was he told there was no other option but war, or Japan would “die”? Was he propagandized that the US was “weak” and “soft”, two oft-mentioned Imperial propaganda ministry talking points, and this would be an easy, relatively brief and even “bloodless” war?
What is clear also is that the US post-war tribunal demurred trying Hirohito for war crimes: it is hard to believe the tribunal authorities turned their back on incriminating evidence.
The fact is that die-hard militarists like Ugaki and clever pro-war bureaucrats like Tojo were Hirohito’s only source of information: Ugaki is in fact quoted in a dispatch from July, 1945 that, regarding a US invasion of Japan, “We have 20 million people: 10 million should be able to sacrifice themselves” for Japan and the Emperor.
What is also consistent is that the emperor, finally grasping the suicide pact the military was imposing on his country, autonomously moved for peace. Ugaki, other army and navy leaders, and likely Tojo, moved to assassinate him.
And that was consistent bictory-or-death behavior for them.
What Hirohito was actually told by Tojo
Was of no consequence. Hirohito was an expansionist long before Tojo had any power. MacArthur made a good call in not having Hirohito tried as a war criminal for pragmatic reasons, but the war in Asia was Hirohito’s project from first to last.
it is hard to believe the tribunal authorities turned their back on incriminating evidence.
Actually, it is easy to believe: it is well documented that Gen MacArthur ordered the prosecutors to do so, out of fear that prosecuting Hirohito would spark a rebellion.
…in the attempted, fantastically desperate assassination plot against Hirohito in July-August, 1945
We know today that there was no such plot, despite U.S. speculation in July 1945. The Army officers who attempted a coup on the night of August 14-15 had no intention of killing Hirohito. Their goal was to detain him and issue decrees in his name – they even had a law professor supplying them with the legal justification for their actions.
Was Hirohito told that the US was “strangling” Imperial Japan?
Almost certainly, because it was true. Here is a particularly good book on the subject: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B009PQEWH2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0