740.00119 PW/5–2945

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State

Participants: Secretary of War Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Forrestal, General Marshall, Mr. Elmer Davis,64 Judge Samuel I. Rosenman, Mr. Eugene H. Dooman: Acting Secretary, Mr. Grew

At the President’s request I called a meeting in Mr. Stimson’s office at the Pentagon Building of the Secretaries of War and Navy and General Marshall. Admiral King was absent but I brought with me Mr. Elmer Davis, Judge Rosenman, and Mr. Dooman.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the question as to whether the President, in his forthcoming speech about our war with Japan, should indicate that we have no intention of determining Japan’s future political structure, which should be left to the Japanese themselves, in the thought that such a statement, which had already been made by Mr. Hull65 and by Chiang Kai-shek,66 might render it easier for the Japanese to surrender unconditionally instead of fighting fanatically for their Emperor. The meeting lasted for an hour and in the course of the discussion it became clear that Mr. Stimson, Mr. Forrestal, and General Marshall were all in accord with the principle but for certain military reasons, not divulged, it was considered inadvisable for the President to make such a statement just now. The question of timing was the nub of the whole matter according to the views presented. I undertook to inform the President of the consensus of the meeting.

Joseph C. Grew
  1. Director of the Office of War Information (OWI).
  2. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State from March 4, 1933, to November 27, 1944; for statements on March 21 and April 9, 1944, see Department of State Bulletin, March 25, 1944, p. 275, and April 15, 1944, p. 335.
  3. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek made a radio broadcast on January 1, 1944.