On Nov. 26, 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted a note to Kichisaburo Nomura, Japan's ambassador in Washington, and special envoy Saburo Kurusu. Whether that note was an ultimatum that made it virtually certain Japan would wage war -- or whether it represented the latest U.S. effort in ongoing negotiations to avert war -- is a subject of hot debate to this day.
In Japan, "revisionists" contend that the so-called Hull Note was a deliberate provocation, so that the United States could -- by the back door, and against the popular mood of the country -- enter the war with Nazi Germany that had raged for more than two years.
However, in Japan and elsewhere, others take the view that, even after delivery of the Hull Note, there was still a way to continue negotiations -- had there been a will to do so on the part of Japan.