It is popularly believed in Japan that the country would have been spared the disgrace of carrying out a "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor if Tokyo's final memorandum to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Washington had been delivered prior to its launch as planned. But a former diplomat says he has unearthed Foreign Ministry documents showing it was more than a question of timing. He says the memorandum was meant to cloak Japan's intention of entering into war.
Takeo Iguchi, a professor at Tokai University and visiting professor at the International Christian University, told The Japan Times the documents suggest that the government colluded to deceive not only the U.S. but even the staff at the Japanese Embassy in Washington.
Iguchi discovered the "Draft Final Memorandum of the Imperial Government Addressed to the U.S. Government," dated Dec. 3, 1941, and stamped "Top State Secret," and a subsequent draft memorandum dated Dec. 5, 1941, in a file at the Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Record Office last February.