Ten Years in Japan

America's Ambassador to Tokyo for the ten years before Pearl Harbor tells the full story of how and why America went to war with Japan. He draws that story from three first-hand sources: his own day-to-day diaries, his personal and official correspondence, and his dispatches to the State Department. From this huge mass of material, he has woven together a chronological narrative of history in the making. President Hoover sent Ambassador Grew to Japan in 1932 because he needed the best diplomat we had to save a desperate situation. The Japanese militarists had already seized Manchuria. They had assassinated half a dozen outstanding moderate statesmen. They were preparing to quit the League, scrap Washington Treaties, and dominate Asia and the Far Pacific. Ambassador Grew's mission had two purposes. One was to uphold American rights in the Far East. The other was to avoid war. The attitude of the Japanese made it impossible for the U.S. to pursue both these policies indefinitely, but Ambassador Grew's diplomacy postponed the showdown, preserved the peace, and upheld America's national honor. Ten Year in Japan tells for the first time the full, inside story of the decade of conflict, intrigue, and surprise that culminated in the inevitable tragedy of war.