10 Dec. 45
I also invite the Tribunal's attention to Ribbentrop's
assurances, expressed in the quotation I read from 1877-PS previously,
that Japan likewise had nothing to fear from the Soviet Union if Japan
entered the conflict. The references to the weaknesses of the United
States, scattered throughout the quotations I have read, were also an
ingredient in this brew which was being so carefully prepared and
brought to a boil.
I should like to introduce one more document on the part of the case
dealing particularly with exhortation of the Japanese to aggression
against the British Commonwealth. This is our Document 1538-PS, which I
now offer as Exhibit USA-154. This document is a top-secret report,
dated 24 May 1941, from the German Military Attaché in Tokyo to
the Intelligence Division of the OKW. I wish merely to call attention,
at this point, to the last sentence in the paragraph numbered 1, wherein
it is stated — I quote: "The preparations for attack on
Singapore and Manila stand."
I shall return to this document later. I point out here, however, the
fact which appears from the sentence I have just read, that the German
military were keeping in close touch with the Japanese operational plans
against Singapore, which the Nazi conspirators had fostered.
Next, exhortations by the Nazis to Japanese aggression against the
U.S.S.R.
I invite the Tribunal's attention, at this point, to the language of
the Indictment on Page 10 of the English edition. I quote, beginning
with the eighth line from the top of the page:
"The Nazi conspirators conceived that
Japanese aggression would weaken and handicap those nations with whom
they were at war and those with whom they contemplated war.
Accordingly, the Nazi conspirators exhorted Japan to seek a 'new order
of things'."
The evidence I
have just adduced showed the Nazi exhortations with particular reference
to the British Commonwealth of Nations. We now turn to their efforts to
induce the Japanese to commit a "stab in the back" on the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Here again the Defendant Ribbentrop
appears as the central figure.
For some months prior to the issuance of Basic Order Number 24
regarding collaboration with Japan, the conspirators had been preparing
Fall Barbarossa, the plan for the attack on the U.S.S.R. Basic Order
Number 24 decreed. however, that the Japanese "must not be given
any intimation of the Barbarossa operation."
In his conference with the Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka, on 29
March 1941, almost 3 weeks after the issuance of Basic Order Number 24,
Ribbentrop nevertheless hinted at things to come. The