December 8, 1941 Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu special envoy hold a meeting with US Secretary of State Hull to deliver their ultimatum. From left: Ambassador Nomura, Secretary of State Hull, Ambassador Kurusu (picture taken on December 1941) (offered by the Mainichi Newspaper) From 4:20 on Monday December 8, 1941 (U.S. time at 14:20, December 7), Ambassador to the United States Kichisaburo Nomura and special envoy Saburo Kurusu meet with US Secretary of State Hull. Both ambassadors delivered the “Memorandum against the United states,” which presented the Japanese government’s official intention to break off negotiations. This was virtually an ultimatum to the United States, showing that the outbreak of war between these countries was unavoidable. Material 1: B02030723900 7 December 6, 1941 to December 7, 1941 (1–2 images) “No. 902 official telegram from Minister Togo to Ambassador Nomura (separate telex)” B02030748300 The U.S. Japan War Talks Part 2 Volume 3 (33–49 images) “Memorandum against the United States” Material 2: B0203072400 8 December 6, 1941 to December 8, 1941 (16–17 images) “Burden of the conference between the U.S. Ambassador and Foreign Minister Togo in Kyoto, Japan” On December 7, 1941, 14:20 U.S. time, Ambassador Nomura and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Kurusu had a conference with Secretary of State Hull to deliver the “Memorandum against the United States”, literally an ultimatum from the Japanese government. Material 1 is the “Memorandum against the United States” sent from Foreign Minster Togo to Ambassador Nomura, although its last part in Japanese is missing. All parts in both Japanese and English remain in the material of “The U.S. Japan War Talk” as stated here. The Memorandum states that the intention of the U.S. government is to obstruct the efforts of the Japanese government for building new orders and cooperating with England and other countries. Because of this, the Japanese government’s hope to fix diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and Japan has been lost. The Memorandum states at its end, “the Japanese Government regrets to have to notify hereby the American Government, that in view of the attitude of the American Government, it can not but consider that it is impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations.” Material 2 is an abstract of the conference between U.S. Ambassador to Japan Grew and Foreign Minister Togo on December 8 and states that the “Memorandum against the United States” was submitted to the U.S. government on December 7, Washington time. Please refer to the “Note of the Imperial Government against the United States” (the so-called “Ultimatum”) under ‘related information’ topics.