John T. Flynn(1945/09，NY)The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor
In Japan the war makers were in a desperate hurry. In the United States, Roosevelt, for some reason, became impatient of delay. So much so that he actually considered sometime be]ore November 14 an invasion of China which would have put us at war with Japan. He proposed it to the Army and Navy staffs. They dissuaded him because we were not ready. So he waited a little longer -babying the Japanese along, but making it plain that they would get no agreement, save by abject surrender -terms he knew no Japanese government would dare accept. He did not nave long to wait. By November 14 the sands were running fast, as Grew had warned. Something had happened which put the play irrevocably in Roosevelt's hands.
At the Atlantic Charter meeting, Churchill had urged Roosevelt to send an ultimatum to Japan at once. He replied saying: "Let me baby her along for another three months."
Mr. Grew, our Ambassador to Tokyo, had advised Roosevelt in December, 1940, that the hope of peace had vanished in the East and that it was no longer a question of whether we would have war with Japan but when. The United States must decide whether it should be later or now. And he, Grew, was for now. To this, on January 21, 1941, Roosevelt replied that he completely agreed with Mr. Grew. And a few weeks later Admiral Stark notified Admiral Kimmel that "war with Japan is no longer a question of whether but of when."
