The following is a translation of a 14 February 1941 Top Secret intelligence report from People’s Commissar of State Security [NKGB] Merkulov to Stalin, Molotov, and Beria.
TOP SECRET
14 February 1941
I am forwarding to you an intelligence message received by the NKGB from Tokyo.
Cipher Telegram No. 980/15 dated 12 February 1941 from Tokyo
REPORT FROM TOKYO
1. In the event of an outbreak of war with the United States, Japan has developed a plan to capture as its top priority the Hawaiian Islands and, specifically, the American naval base Pearl Harbor. The Japanese consider this base the primary strategic point that can play a decisive role in the event of a Japanese-American war. At the same time, a plan was drawn up to conduct a strike against the Dutch East Indies and Indochina.
2. The Japanese feel that the TATEKAWA mission in Moscow yielded success, as evidenced by the following facts: the provisional fishing agreement between the USSR and Japan; the initiation of dialogue on the new fishing convention; the trade agreement; the border issue and the Soviet government’s special decision to recall its advisors from China.
MATSUOKA is particularly pleased with the results of TATEKAWA’s activities.
3. In the negotiations currently underway in Tokyo between SIAM and Indochina, the French delegation, and specifically the French ambassador to Japan ARSÈNE, unexpectedly took a decisive position and are not giving in to the demands of the Japanese, which is upsetting the Japanese plans.
Translation © 2025 by Michael Estes and TranslatingHistory.org
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