German Peace Plea to Russia Reported.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept 16. The Berne correspondent of the Swedis newspaper Morgentidningen, citing a “reliable German source,” said today that Adolf Hitler had asked an intermediary to ask Russia for peace.
Germany offered to evacuate Finland and the Balkans, retaining her economic connections with the latter and to accept the Polish demarcation line fixed by Germany and Russia in 1939, the report said. The same German source, the correspondent added, heard strong rumors that the Japanese at the same time had asked Russia to make contact with the American and British for peace terms.
The intermediary used by Hitler is said to be Hiroshi Oshimana, Japanese Ambassador in Berlin.
If true, I can see Uncle Joe trying to figure out how to use it for his advantage. Interesting that Hitler would use a Japanese intermediary. Is this the first indication of the axis powers wanting peace? I wonder how true it is or just a probe on the part of Germany and Japan.
If these “peace feelers” were made in the summer of 1944, I can guarantee they were not serious.
This is not the last time the Japanese will approach the Russians about intervening to broker a peace deal between Japan and the United States. Next summer, there will be some feelers sent out by Tokyo. They are very well documented in Richard Frank’s “Downfall.”
Some problems with these “peace feelers,” as Frank points out:
1. They do not have the official sanction of the Japanese government. They are initiated by mid-level foreign ministry functionaries who are more or less acting as free agents;
2. The terms they sort of had in mind were not realistic. They envision basically an armistice with maintaining the status quo: Japan keeps all territories they occupy, they keep what’s left of their military, no occupation of the Home Islands, no indemnities, no trials of war criminals.
3. The Soviets were not honest brokers. Stalin already had his concessions at Yalta, and needed to declare war on Japan 90 days after VE day to collect his spoils. He had no interest in ending the war.
4. The Americans were reading the proposals through the PURPLE intercepts. We knew the Japanese were not serious about ending the war.
So anyone who was arguing that the Japanese were “ready to surrender” when the bombs were dropped has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. No, they weren’t.
If that’s what some Japanese thought they could get in July 1945, just how unrealistic were the proposals a year earlier? They probably wanted us to restore their conquered territory and give them an indemnity.