27 FEB. 1946 Date and Time: 27 February 1946, 1420-1620 hours Place: Sugamo Prison, Tokyo, Japan Present: General Hiroshi OSHIMA G. Osmond Hyde, Interrogator Lt. Comdr. F.B. Huggins, U.S.N.R., Interpreter Miss Lucille G. Brunner, Stenographer. Questions by: Mr. Hyde. OATH OF INTERPRETER Mr. Hyde: “Lt. Comdr. Huggins, the Interpreter, having been duly sworn on previous interrogations of General OSHIMA, now continues to interpret from English to Japanese and from Japanese into English, as required in this proceeding. Q. General, you may proceed with your narrative at the point where you left off yesterday. A. To clear up this before I go any further: almost since the beginning of United States-Japanese talks I had received absolutely no information concerning their progress from the Japanese Government, nor had I received any information about relations with the Soviet Union. The main reason for this, I believe, was that formerly we had used couriers to carry information of this sort, but due to the difficulties because of the German-Soviet war this became impossible, and for security reasons no communications of this sort were sent. Around the 29th or 30th of November 1941, I received word from Japan to the effect that Secretary of State Hull’s reply of November 26, to Japanese proposals was extremely severe in tone. 1 Not knowing much about what the negotiations had covered, I was not able to make an analysis of the situation, this being the first communication regarding United States-Japanese negotiations that I had received. Following this, I believe it was around the end of November or the very beginning of December, I received another communication to the effect that the Japanese Government had issued an order to its Consulates in the United States to burn all but a very small portion of their codes. Q. Did these communications all come from the Foreign Office? 1 This 26 November reply demanded the complete withdrawal of all Japanese troops from French Indo-China and China. This was interpreted by the Japanese as an ultimatum. U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull is also known for denying visas to desperate Jews seeking to flee Nazi Germany. He also played an important role in setting up the United Nations after the war. 152