The Speaker laid before the House the following message from the President of the United States, which was read, and, with the accompanying documents, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered printed:
To the Congress of the United States of America:
On December 8, 1941, I presented to the Congress a message in person asking for a declaration of war as an answer to the treacherous attack made by Japan the previous day upon the United States. For the information of the Congress, and as a public record of the facts, I am transmitting this historical summary of the past policy of this country in relation to the Pacific area and of the more immediate events leading up to this Japanese onslaught upon our forces and territory. Attached hereto are the various documents and correspondence implementing this history.
A little over a hundred years ago, in 1833, the United States entered into its first Far Eastern treaty, a treaty with Siam. It was a treaty providing for peace and for dependable relationships.
Ten years later, Caleb Cushing was sent to negotiate and in 1844, there was concluded our first treaty with China.
In 1853, Cdre. Perry knocked on Japan’s doors. In the next few years, those doors began to open; and Japan, which had kept itself aloof from the world, began to adopt what we call Western civilization. During those early years, the United States used every influence it could exert to protect Japan in her transition stage.
With respect to the entire Pacific area, the United States has consistently urged, as it has for all other parts of the globe, the fundamental importance to world peace of fair and equal treatment among nations. Accordingly, whenever there has been a tendency on the part of any other nation to encroach upon the independence and sovereignty of countries of the Far East the United States has tried to discourage such tendency wherever possible.
There was a period when this American attitude was especially important to Japan. At all times, it has been important to China and to other countries of the Far East.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the sovereignty of the Philippine Islands passed from Spain to this country. The United States pledged itself to a policy toward the Philippines designed to equip them to become a free and independent nation. That pledge and that policy we have consistently carried out.
At that time, there was going on in China what has been called the “Scramble for Concessions.” There was even talk about a possible partitioning of China. It was then that the principle of the “Open Door” in China was laid down. In 1900, the American government declared that its policy was to:
…seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China… protect all rights guaranteed to friendly powers by treaty and international law and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire.
Ever since that day, we have consistently and unfailingly advocated the principles of the Open Door Policy throughout the Far East.
In the year 1908 the government of the United States and the government of Japan concluded an agreement by an exchange of notes. In that agreement, the two governments jointly declared that they were determined to support “by all pacific means at their disposal the independence and integrity of China and the principle of equal opportunity for commerce and industry of all nations in that Empire;” that it was “the wish of the two governments to encourage the free and peaceful development of their commerce on the Pacific Ocean;” and that “the policy of both governments” was “directed to the maintenance of the existing status quo” in that region.
The United States has consistently practiced the principles enunciated in that agreement.
In 1921, following the close of the First World War, nine powers having interests in the Western Pacific met in conference in Washington. China, Japan, and the United States were there. One great objective of this conference was the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. This was to be achieved by reduction of armament and by regulation of competition in the Pacific and Far Eastern areas. Several treaties and agreements were concluded at that conference.
One of these was the Nine-Power Treaty. It contained pledges to respect the sovereignty of China and the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations throughout China.
Another was a treaty between the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan providing for limitation of naval armament.
The course of events which have led directly to the present crisis began 10 years ago. For it was then – in 1931 – that Japan undertook on a large scale its present policy of conquest in China. It began by the invasion of Manchuria, which was part of China. The Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations, at once and during many months of continuous effort thereafter, tried to persuade Japan to stop. The United States supported that effort. For example, the government of the United States on January 7, 1932, specifically stated in notes sent to the Japanese and the Chinese governments that it would not recognize any situation, treaty, or agreement brought about by violation of treaties.
This barbaric aggression of Japan in Manchuria set the example and the pattern for the course soon to be pursued by Italy and Germany in Africa and in Europe. In 1933, Hitler assumed power in Germany. It was evident that, once rearmed, Germany would embark upon a policy of conquest in Europe. Italy – then still under the domination of Mussolini – also had resolved upon a policy of conquest in Africa and in the Mediterranean.
Through the years which followed, Germany, Italy, and Japan reached an understanding to time their acts of aggression to their common advantage – and to bring about the ultimate enslavement of the rest of the world.
In 1934, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs sent a friendly note to the United States, stating that he firmly believed that no question existed between the two governments that was “fundamentally incapable of amicable solution.” He added that Japan had “no intention whatever to provoke and make trouble with any other power.” Our Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, replied in kind.
But in spite of this exchange of friendly sentiments, and almost immediately thereafter, the acts and utterances of the Japanese government began to belie these assurances – at least, so far as the rights and interests of other nations in China were concerned.
Our government thereupon expressed to Japan the view of the American people, and of the American government, that no nation has the right thus to override the rights and legitimate interests of other sovereign states.
The structure of peace which had been founded upon the Washington Conference treaties began to be discarded by Japan. Indeed, in December of 1934, the Japanese government gave notice of its intention to terminate the Naval Treaty of February 6, 1922, which had limited competition in naval armament. She thereafter intensified and multiplied her rearmament program.
In 1936, the government of Japan openly associated itself with Germany by entering the Anti-Comintern Pact.
This pact, as we all know, was nominally directed against the Soviet Union; but its real purpose was to form a league of fascism against the free world, particularly against Great Britain, France, and the United States.
Following this association of Germany, Italy, and Japan, the stage was now set for an unlimited campaign of conquest. In July 1937, feeling themselves ready, the armed forces of Japan opened new large-scale military operations against China. Presently, her leaders, dropping the mask of hypocrisy, publicly declared their intention to seize and maintain for Japan a dominant position in the entire region of eastern Asia, the western Pacific, and the southern Pacific.
They thus accepted the German thesis that 70 or 80 million Germans were by race, training, ability, and might superior in every way to any other race in Europe – superior to about 400 million other human beings in that area. And Japan, following suit, announced that the 70 or 80 million Japanese people were also superior to the 700 or 800 million other inhabitants of the Orient – nearly all of whom were infinitely older and more developed in culture and civilization than themselves. Their conceit would make them masters of a region containing almost one-half the population of the earth. It would give them complete control of vast sea lanes and trade routes of importance to the entire world.
The military operations which followed in China flagrantly disregarded American rights. Japanese armed forces killed Americans. They wounded or abused American men, women, and children. They sank American vessels – including a naval vessel, the Panay. They bombed American hospitals, churches, schools, and missions. They destroyed American property. They obstructed, and in some cases drove out, American commerce.
In the meantime, they were inflicting incalculable damage upon China, and ghastly suffering upon the Chinese people. They were inflicting wholesale injuries upon other nations’ flouting all the principles of peace and good will among men. There are attached hereto lists of American nationals killed or wounded by Japanese forces in China since July 7, 1937; of American property in China reported to have been damaged, destroyed, or seriously endangered by Japanese air bombing or air machine-gunning; of American nationals reported to have been assaulted, arbitrarily detained, or subjected to indignities; of interferences with American nationals, rights, and interests. These lists are not complete. However, they are ample evidence of the flagrant Japanese disregard of American rights and civilized standards.
Meanwhile, brute conquest was on the rampage in Europe and the Mediterranean.
Hitler and Mussolini embarked upon a scheme of unlimited conquest. Since 1935, without provocation or excuse they have attacked, conquered, and reduced to economic and political slavery some sixteen independent nations. The machinery set up for their unlimited conquest included, and still includes, not only enormous armed forces, but also huge organizations for carrying on plots, intrigue, intimidation, propaganda, and sabotage. This machine – unprecedented in size – has worldwide ramifications; and into them the Japanese plans and operations have been steadily interlocked.
As the forces of Germany, Italy, and Japan increasingly combined their efforts over these years, I was convinced that this combination would ultimately attack the United States and the Western Hemisphere – if it were successful in the other continents. The very existence of the United States as a great free people, and the free existence of the American family of nations in the New World, would be a standing challenge to the Axis. The Axis dictators would choose their own time to make it clear that the United States and the New World were included in their scheme of destruction.
This they did last year, in 1940, when Hitler and Mussolini concluded a treaty of alliance with Japan deliberately aimed at the United States.
The strategy of Japan in the Pacific area was a faithful counterpart of that used by Hitler in Europe. Through infiltration, encirclement, intimidation, and finally armed attack, control was extended over neighboring peoples. Each such acquisition was a new starting point for new aggression.
Pursuing this policy of conquest, Japan had first worked her way into and finally seized Manchuria. Next she had invaded China; and has sought for the past four and a half years to subjugate her.
Passing through the China Sea close to the Philippine Islands, she then invaded and took possession of Indochina. Today the Japanese are extending this conquest throughout Thailand and seeking the occupation of Malaya and Burma. The Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Java come next on the Japanese timetable; and it is probable that further down the Japanese page are the names of Australia, New Zealand, and all the other islands of the Pacific – including Hawaii and the great chain of the Aleutian Islands.
To the eastward of the Philippines, Japan violated the mandate under which she had received the custody of the Caroline, Marshall and Mariana Islands after the World War, by fortifying them, and not only closing them to all commerce but her own but forbidding any foreigner even to visit them.
Japanese spokesmen, after their custom, cloaked these conquests with innocent-sounding names. They talked of the “New Order in Eastern Asia;” and then of the “co-prosperity sphere in Greater East Asia.” What they really intended was the enslavement of every nation which they could bring within their power, and the enrichment – not of all Asia, not even of the common people of Japan – but of the warlords who had seized control of the Japanese state. Here too they were following the Nazi pattern.
By this course of aggression, Japan made it necessary for various countries, including our own, to keep in the Pacific in self-defense large armed forces and a vast amount of material which might otherwise have been used against Hitler. That, of course, is exactly what Hitler wanted them to do. The diversion thus created by Hitler’s Japanese ally forced the peace-loving nations to establish and maintain a huge front in the Pacific.
Throughout this course and program of Japanese aggression, the government of the United States consistently endeavored to persuade the government of Japan that Japan’s best interests would lie in maintaining and cultivating friendly relations with the United States and with all other countries that believe in orderly and peaceful processes. Following the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and China in 1937, this government made known to the Japanese government and to the Chinese government that whenever both those governments considered it desirable we stood ready to exercise our good offices. During the following years of conflict, that attitude on our part remained unchanged.
In October 1937, upon invitation by which the Belgian government made itself the host, nineteen countries which have interests in the Far East, including the United States, sent representatives to Brussels to consider the situation in the Far East in conformity with the Nine Power Treaty and to endeavor to bring about an adjustment of the difficulties between Japan and China by peaceful means. Japan and Germany only of all the powers invited declined to attend. Japan was itself an original signatory of the treaty. China, one of the signatories, and the Soviet Union, not a signatory, attended. After the conference opened, the countries in attendance made further attempts to persuade Japan to participate in the conference. Japan again declined.
On November 24, 1937, the conference adopted a declaration, urging that “hostilities be suspended and resort be had to peaceful processes.” Japan scorned the conference and ignored the recommendation.
It became clear that, unless this course of affairs in the Far East was halted, the Pacific area was doomed to experience the same horrors which have devastated Europe.
Therefore, in this year of 1941, in an endeavor to end this process by peaceful means while there seemed still to be a chance, the United States entered into discussions with Japan.
For nine months, these conversations were carried on, for the purpose of arriving at some understanding acceptable to both countries.
Throughout all of these conversations, this government took into account not only the legitimate interests of the United States but also those of Japan and other countries. When questions relating to the legitimate rights and interests of other countries came up, this government kept in appropriate contact with the representatives of those countries.
In the course of these negotiations, the United States steadfastly advocated certain basic principles which should govern international relations. These were:
The principle of inviolability of territorial integrity and sovereignty of all nations.
The principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
The principle of equality – including equality of commercial opportunity and treatment.
The principle of reliance upon international cooperation and conciliation for the prevention, and pacific settlement, of controversies.
The Japanese government, it is true, repeatedly offered qualified statements of peaceful intention. But it became clear, as each proposal was explored, that Japan did not intend to modify in any way her greedy designs upon the whole Pacific world. Although she continually maintained that she was promoting only the peace and greater prosperity of East Asia, she continued her brutal assault upon the Chinese people.
Nor did Japan show any inclination to renounce her unholy alliance with Hitlerism.
In July of this year, the Japanese government connived with Hitler to force from the Vichy government of France permission to place Japanese armed forces in southern Indochina, and began sending her troops and equipment into that area.
The conversations between this government and the Japanese government were thereupon suspended.
But during the following month, at the urgent and insistent request of the Japanese government, which again made emphatic profession of peaceful intent, the conversations were resumed.
At that time the Japanese government made the suggestion that the responsible heads of the Japanese government and of the government of the United States meet personally to discuss means for bringing about an adjustment of relations between the two countries. I should have been happy to travel thousands of miles to meet the Premier of Japan for that purpose. But I felt it desirable, before so doing, to obtain some assurance that there could be some agreement on basic principles. This government tried hard – but without success – to obtain such assurance from the Japanese government.
The various proposals of the Japanese government and the attitude taken by this government are set forth in a document which the Secretary of State handed to the Japanese Ambassador on October 2, 1941.
Thereafter, several formulas were offered and discussed. But the Japanese government continued upon its course of war and conquest.
Finally, on November 20, 1941, the Japanese government presented a new and narrow proposal, which called for supplying by the United States to Japan of as much oil as Japan might require, for suspension of freezing measures, and for discontinuance by the United States of aid to China. It contained, however, no provision for abandonment by Japan of her warlike operations or aims.
Such a proposal obviously offered no basis for a peaceful settlement or even for a temporary adjustment. The American government, in order to clarify the issues, presented to the Japanese government, on November 26, a clear-cut plan for a broad but simple settlement.
The outline of the proposed plan for agreement between the United States and Japan was divided into two parts:
In section one, there was outlined a mutual declaration of policy containing affirmations that the national policies of the two countries were directed toward peace throughout the Pacific area, that the two countries had no territorial designs or aggressive intentions in that area, and that they would give active support to certain fundamental principles of peace upon which their relations with each other and all other nations would be based. There was provision for mutual pledges to support and apply in their economic relations with each other and with other nations and peoples liberal economic principles, which were enumerated, based upon the general principle of equality of commercial opportunity and treatment.
In section two, there were outlined proposed steps to be taken by the two governments. These steps envisaged a situation in which there would be no Japanese or other foreign armed forces in French Indochina or in China. Mutual commitments were suggested along lines as follows: (a) to endeavor to conclude a multilateral non-aggression pact among the governments principally concerned in the Pacific area; (b) to endeavor to conclude among the principally interested governments an agreement to respect the territorial integrity of Indochina and not to seek or accept preferential economic treatment therein; (c) not to support any government in China other than the National Government of the Republic of China with capital temporarily at Chungking; (d) to relinquish extraterritorial and related rights in China and to endeavor to obtain the agreement of other governments now possessing such rights to give up those rights; (e) to negotiate a trade agreement based upon reciprocal most-favored-nation treatment; (f) to remove freezing restrictions imposed by each country on the funds of the other; (g) to agree upon a plan for the stabilization of the dollar-yen rate; (h) to agree that no agreement which either had concluded with any third power or powers shall be interpreted by it in a way to conflict with the fundamental purpose of this agreement; and (i) to use their influence to cause other governments to adhere to the basic political and economic principles provided for in this suggested agreement.
In the midst of these conversations, we learned that new contingents of Japanese armed forces and new masses of equipment were moving into Indochina. Toward the end of November, these movements were intensified. During the first week of December, new movements of Japanese forces made it clear that, under cover of the negotiations, attacks on unspecified objectives were being prepared.
I promptly asked the Japanese government for a frank statement of the reasons for increasing its forces in Indochina. I was given an evasive and specious reply. Simultaneously, the Japanese operations went forward with increased tempo.
We did not know then, as we know now, that they had ordered and were even then carrying out their plan for a treacherous attack upon us.
I was determined, however, to exhaust every conceivable effort for peace. With this in mind, on the evening of December 6 last, I addressed a personal message to the Emperor of Japan.
To this government’s proposal of November 26, the Japanese Government made no reply until December 7. On that day, the Japanese Ambassador here and the Special Representative whom the Japanese government had sent to the United States to assist in peaceful negotiations delivered a lengthy document to our Secretary of State, one hour after the Japanese had launched a vicious attack upon American territory and American citizens in the Pacific.
That document was a few minutes after its receipt aptly characterized by the Secretary of State as follows:
I must say that in all my conversations with you [the Japanese Ambassador] during the last nine months I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is borne out absolutely by the record. In all my fifty 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.
I concur emphatically in every word of that statement.
For the record of history, it is essential in reading this part of my message always to bear in mind that the actual air and submarine attack in the Hawaiian Islands commenced on Sunday, December 7, at 1:20 p.m. Washington Time – 7:50 a.m. Honolulu Time of same day – Monday, December 8, 3:20 a.m. Tokyo Time.
To my message of December 6 (9:00 p.m. Washington Time, December 7, 11:00 a.m. Tokyo Time) to the Emperor of Japan, invoking his cooperation with me in further effort to preserve peace, there has finally come to me on December 10 (6:23 a.m. Washington Time – December 10, 8:23 p.m. Tokyo Time) a reply, conveyed in a telegraphic report by the American Ambassador at Tokyo dated December 8, 1:00 p.m. (December 7, 11:00 p.m. Washington Time).
The Ambassador reported that at seven o’clock on the morning of the 8th (December 7, 5:00 p.m. Washington Time) the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs asked him to call at his official residence; that the Foreign Minister handed the Ambassador a memorandum dated December 8 (December 7, Washington Time) the text of which had been transmitted to the Japanese Ambassador in Washington to be presented to the American government (this was the memorandum which was delivered by the Japanese Ambassador to the Secretary of State at 2:20 p.m. on Sunday, December 7 (Monday, December 8, 4:20 a.m. Tokyo Time); that the Foreign Minister had been in touch with the Emperor; and that the Emperor desired that the memorandum be regarded as the Emperor’s reply to my message.
Further, the Ambassador reports, the Foreign Minister made an oral statement. Textually, the oral statement began:
His Majesty has expressed his gratefulness and appreciation for the cordial message of the President.
The message further continued to the effect that, in regard to our inquiries on the subject of increase of Japanese forces in French Indochina, His Majesty had commanded his government to state its views to the American government. The message concluded, textually, with the statement:
Establishment of peace in the Pacific, and consequently of the world, has been the cherished desire of His Majesty for the realization of which he has hitherto made his government to continue its earnest endeavors. His Majesty trusts that the President is fully aware of this fact.
Japan’s real reply, however, made by Japan’s warlords and evidently formulated many days before, took the form of the attack which had already been made without warning upon our territories at various points in the Pacific.
There is the record, for all history to read in amazement, in sorrow, in horror, and in disgust!
We are now at war. We are fighting in self-defense. We are fighting in defense of our national existence, of our right to be secure, of our right to enjoy the blessings of peace. We are fighting in defense of principles of law and order and justice, against an effort of unprecedented ferocity to overthrow those principles and to impose upon humanity a regime of ruthless domination by unrestricted and arbitrary force.
Other countries, too – a host of them – have declared war on Japan. Some of them were first attacked by Japan, as we have been. China has already been valiantly resisting Japan in an undeclared war forced upon her by Japan. After four and a half years of stubborn resistance, the Chinese now and henceforth will fight with renewed confidence and confirmed assurance of victory.
All members of the Great British Commonwealth, themselves fighting heroically on many fronts against Germany and her allies, have joined with us in the Battle of the Pacific as we have joined with them in the Battle of the Atlantic.
All but three of the governments of nations overrun by German armies have declared war on Japan. The other three are severing relations.
In our own hemisphere, many of our sister republics have declared war on Japan and the others have given firm expression of their solidarity with the United States.
The following are the countries which have to date declared war against Japan:
- Australia
- Canada
- China
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Poland
- El Salvador
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
These and other peace-loving countries will be fighting, as are we, first, to put an end to Japan’s program of aggression and, second, to make good the right of nations and of mankind to live in peace under conditions of security and justice.
The people of this country are totally united in their determination to consecrate our national strength and manpower to bring conclusively to an end the pestilence of aggression and force which has long menaced the world and which now has struck deliberately and directly at the safety of the United States.
