rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

THE TURN OF THE UNITED STATES 803even though I am not so sure about the advantage . . . Mussolini was[also] happy. For a long time now he has been in favor of clarifyingthe position between America and the Axis.At 1 P.M. on Monday, December 8, General Oshima went to the Wilhelmstrasseto get Ribbentrop to clarify Germany’s position. He demanded a formaldeclaration of war on the United States ”at once.”Ribbentrop replied [Oshima radioed Tokyo] that Hitler was then inthe midst of a conference at general headquarters discussing howthe formalities of declaring war could be carried out so as to make agood impression on the German people, and that he would transmityour wish to him at once and do whatever he was able to have itcarried out promptly.The Nazi Foreign Minister also informed the ambassador, according to thelatter’s message to Tokyo, that on that very morning of the eighth ”Hitler issuedorders to the German Navy to attack American ships whenever and whereverthey may meet them.” 1112 But the dictator stalled on a declaration of war. ∗The Fuehrer, according to the notation in his daily calendar book, hurriedback to Berlin on the night of December 8, arriving there at 11 o’clock the nextmorning. Ribbentrop claimed at Nuremberg that he pointed out to the Leaderthat Germany did not necessarily have to declare war on America under theterms of the Tripartite Pact, since Japan was obviously the aggressor.The text of the Tripartite Pact bound us to assist Japan only in caseof an attack against Japan herself. I went to see the Fuehrer, explainedthe legal aspect of the situation and told him that, althoughwe welcomed a new ally against England, it meant we had a newopponent to deal with as well . . . if we declared war on the UnitedStates.I told him that according to the stipulation of the Three-Power Pact,since Japan had attacked, we would not have to declare war, formally.The Fuehrer thought this matter over quite a while and thenhe gave me a very clear decision. ”If we don’t stand on the side ofJapan,” he said, ”the Pact is politically dead. But that is not themain reason. The chief reason is that the United States already isshooting against our ships. They have been a forceful factor in thiswar and through their actions have already created a situation ofwar.”The Fuehrer was of the opinion at that moment that it was quiteevident that the United States would now make war against Germany.Therefore he ordered me to hand over the passports to theAmerican representative. 1114This was a decision that Roosevelt and Hull in Washington had been confidentlywaiting for. There had been some pressure on them to have Congress∗ In Tokyo at the same time Foreign Minister Togo was telling Ambassador Ott, ”TheJapanese Government expects that now Germany too will speedily declare war on the UnitedStates.” 1113