12 FEB. 1946 Date and Time: 12 February 1946, 1400-1615 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, if I understood you correctly yesterday when we were discussing the time Ribbentrop mentioned to you the idea that Germany might seek a Non-Aggression Pact with Russia at Hitler’s birthday party, you stated that you had also received information regarding that matter from your intelligence sources. Now tell us, if when you received this information from your intelligence sources, which I assume was before Ribbentrop told you about it, you communicated the information to your Foreign Office in Tokyo? A. The information that I said I received from intelligence sources was not concrete at all and was simply rumors which abounded around Berlin at the time that Germany and the U.S.S.R. were entering into negotiations regarding an economic pact (trade pact). These rumors I did not pass on to my Government in Tokyo. Further, I wish to make it clear that when Ribbentrop spoke to me at the time of a party in celebration of Hitler’s birthday, which was held at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, Ribbentrop did not state that he was entering into negotiations with Russia. When he spoke to SHIRATORI and me around one or two a.m. in the morning following the party, he said that if the matter of a pact between Germany and Japan continued in the stage of talks for too long a period it might become necessary for Germany to clasp hands with Russia in one way or another. That was all. Q. General, I understood you to say yesterday that Ribbentrop was very definite in stating that it might become necessary to seek a Non-Aggression Pact with Russia at the time of this party. A. Yes, he did say Non-Aggression Pact. 58