Biographic Information of the Principal Diplomats "W W II's First Exchange Of Enemy Diplomats”
Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura (1877-1964)
was Japanese admiral and diplomat. He was a graduate of the Japanese Naval Academy, commanded troops at Shanghai in 1932, was made a full admiral in 1933, and resigned from active service in 1937. He was (1939) foreign minister before being appointed (1940) ambassador to the United States. He and special envoy Kurusu, were carrying out negotiations in Washington, D. C. when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. After World War II, he continued to deny that he knew beforehand of the attack. Ambassador Nomura replaced Kensuke Horinouchi (March 1941-July 1942). He and "special envoy” to Washington, Saburo Kurusu, were negotiating with United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull when Pearl Harbor was bombed on Sunday December 7, 1941. As it was Monday December 8th in Japan, it should come as no surprise if the Japanese Foreign Office didn't realize the embassy's technical support staff would be absent in Washington, DC. Reportedly Nomura and Kurusu had to personally decode the radioed message of Japan's breaking off the negotiations with US (which given the circumstances practically meant war). The resultant delay has been cited as why they were unable to even attempt to deliver it until after the actual attack had taken place.
Saburo Kurusu (1886-1954)
was a Japanese career diplomat. As Imperial Japan's ambassador to Germany from 1939 to November 1941, he signed the Tripartite Pact along with Adolf Hitler and representative of Fascist Italy on September 27, 1940. As "special envoy” to Washington from November 16, 1941, he and Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura were negotiating with United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941. He was interned in the United States from December 1941 to June 1942. He returned to Japan and after the war became a professor at Tokyo University.
Hidenari Terasaki (1900-1951)
First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy, played an important role in the urgent, last-minute efforts to prevent war between the United States and Imperial Japan. After the conclusion of hostilities, he was appointed advisor to the Emperor and became the official liaison between the Palace and the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur.
A graduate student at Brown University, he married Gwen Harold of Johnson City Tennessee in 1931. Mrs Gwen Terasaki has recounted her fascinating life with her husband during the turbulent years of the war in her captivating book, "Bridge to the Sun. “
Joseph Clark Grew (1880-1965)
born in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as the U. S. ambassador to Denmark 1920–1921 and ambassador to Switzerland 1921–1924. In 1924, Grew became the Under Secretary of State and oversaw the establishment of the Foreign Service. Grew was the US Ambassador to Turkey 1927–1932 and the ambassador to Japan beginning in 1932. He was the US ambassad or in Tokyo at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and when the United States and Japan declared war on each other in December 1941. He was interned for a short time by the Japanese government but was released and returned to the United States on June 25, 1942. In 1944, Grew resumed his post as Under Secretary of State.
Roy L. Morgan (1908-1985)
was born in Morgantown, West Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1933. In 1934 he began ten years of service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As a special agent for the FBI, he represented the U. S. government during the 1942 detention of 1,200 Japanese, German and Italian diplomats from North and South America at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia and The Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The correspondence he filed with the Director of the FBI relating to the internees were placed in the archives of the University of Virginia Law Library and were made available for review for this publication. After the war he was assigned to Tokyo by the War Department to serve as Associate Counsel and Chief of the Investigative Division of the International Prosecution Section of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East . He served in various capacities for the U. S. and Japanese governments. In 1955-1956 he was one of the American advisors to the Prime Minister of Japan, and Chief Justice of the U. S. Civil Administration, Appellate Court for the Far East until 1960. From 1960 to 1967 he was Special Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce, and consultant of the U. S. government, advisor on international trade with Japan, and in 1962 and 1968, he served as Head of the U. S. Trade Missions to Japan.