MEMORANDUM FOR MR. MORGAN To: Mr. Morgan 12 March, 1946 From: Mr. Hyde File No. 247 Subject: OSHIMA, Hiroshi In document 536 there is what purports to be a telegram sent by Ribbentrop to Tokyo reporting in detail regarding a conference Ribbentrop had with OSHIMA in Fushel, Germany, on February 23, 1941. This telegram gives a more detailed account of what was said at that conference than appears in the extract from the formal report of Ribbentrop that appears in document 172. It would seem advisable to ascertain if this telegram was received by the German Ambassador in Tokyo and what, if any, conversations he had with the Japanese Foreign Office regarding the matters set forth therein. The substance of what was said, and by whom, in those conversations should be determined. In my interrogation of OSHIMA he stated, “I am sure that dispatch regarding this meeting was passed to Ott who, no doubt, took it to the Japanese Foreign Office. On my part I think that I also must have sent a dispatch to the Japanese Foreign Office about this meeting, and had I done so , I would have said that I had tried to match my talks with the German in order to please them. (Transcript, P.187) A casual reading of the telegram will disclose that while what was said by OSHIMA might have been pleasing to the Germans the subjects discussed by the two can hardly be explained away in such an unusual manner. If the telegram were received by Ott and discussed with the Foreign Office in Tokyo we might uncover evidence of ratification of these remarks by the Foreign Minister. 215