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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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the Japanese have attacked us and have made an all-out assault on Pearl Harbor. That is an agressive act of war. The Secretary of State has already dismissed the Japanese envoys and they are in our care and custody. They're in diplomatic custody. We will take care of them until they can be sent back to Japan. Nothing will happen to them, but they will not be in a position to communicate with the press or the public.” They were treated perfectly well, as envoys should be treated, and as we would expect our envoys caught in a foreign war to be treated. However, they were not at liberty.

Hull nodded. He gave us no fill-in, though, on what he had said, what they had said, except to say, “You know, Mr. President, to the last minute they were protesting. When I told them this was the end and everything was over, they protested that they didn't know anything about it. They had the nerve to say to me that there was some mistake, that we must be misinformed, that there had been some accident. But you know what we know.” To this day I don't know what they knew, but I assume that some intelligence had at some time intercepted communications to Nomura and Kurusu which indicated that the government was in communication with them to the effect that something of this sort was going to happen. I just understand that, but I never was told that in so many words, as a matter of fact. At the time I don't think I gathered that, although I knew that Hull was very angry and believed that they were just plain lying and cheating and that





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