MEMORANDUM


                                                March 10, 1986

From:  Frank A. Schuler, Jr., former Foreign Service/Language Officer
                              Department of State - 1930-1953

Re:    Despatch Warning About Japan's Plan to Attack Pearl Harbor

    1.  On January 27, 1941, a telegram arrived in the Division of
        Far Eastern Affairs of the Department of State from
        Ambassador Joseph C. Grew in Tokyo, reporting that the
        Japanese were planning a surprise mass attack on Pearl Harbor.

        See Ex. 1, TELEGRAM RECEIVED, dated January 27, 1941, and
            Ex. 2, paraphrase of the telegram.

        Also, please note my initials, "FASj" in the upper right
        edge of the FE stamp.
                                                        */
    2.  Several days later, as was customary, a despatch-arrived
        by diplomatic courier, supplementing in detail the informa-
        tion contained in the above telegram.  In relating the facts,
        Mr. Grew stated that the Peruvian Minister to Japan,
        Ricardo Rivera Schreiber, had told him (or as Mr. Grew put
        it, a member of his staff) that the Japanese were planning
        "a surprise mass attack" on Pearl Harbor.  The 2-3 page
        despatch went on to give Mr. Schreiber's source as his
        Japanese valet, a trusted employee of many years, who had
        a brother in Japanese Naval Intelligence at the time who
        had access to documents which revealed Admiral Yamamoto's
        plan to attack Pearl Harbor.

    3.  In the course of the hearings in search of the truth about
        events leading up to the attack, Mr. Grew consistently
        denied he knew Mr. Schreiber's source.  One example appears
        in Mr. Grew's book, TURBULENT ERA, Footnote 19 on P. 1233,
        Ex. 3 attached.

    4.  One aspect of the despatch stands out vividly in my mind,
        as well as that of my wife, then Olive LaCroix, namely,the
        last paragraph consisting of one sentence.

           "The Embassy places no credence in Minister Schreiber's
            report."

        This fatal last sentence assured that the information would
        never get to the eyes and ears of the Secretary of State as
        as well as the President.

 */ This despatch is missing from the files.