The Pittsburgh Press (January 26, 1941)
EMPEROR URGES U.S.-JAP AMITY
….
Hirohito congratulates Roosevelt on third term
….
Washington, Jan. 25 (UP) –
Emperor Hirohito of Japan, in a message congratulating President Roosevelt on his third-term inauguration, expressed an earnest wish for “strengthened” U.S.-Japanese relations, the State Department revealed today.
Japan, the State Department’s files disclosed, was the only Axis power to formally congratulate Mr. Roosevelt on his inauguration.
Emperor Hirohito messaged:
I take great pleasure in sending you my cordial congratulations on your inauguration of the third tenure as President of the United States. I earnestly wish that the friendly relations between our respective countries may be strengthened during your term of exalted office.
Mr. Roosevelt replied:
I greatly appreciate your cordial telegram of congratulations and I heartily reciprocate the friendly sentiments which Your Majesty has been so good as to express.
22 nations sent inauguration messages, most of them from Latin America.
Marshal Petain sent his “warm felicitations” and received in reply the President’s assurance of the American people’s “sincere good wishes for you and for the French people.” Others came from President Risto Ryti of Finland, the Earl of Athlone, Governor General of Canada, Lin Sen, chairman of the Chinese National Government at Chunking, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, who is now in Ottawa, and President Władysław Raczkiewicz, Polish President now in London.