Joseph Grew


Joseph Clark Grew was an American career diplomat and Foreign Service officer. He is best known as the ambassador to Japan between 1932-1941, and as a high official in the State Department in Washington between 1944-1945, where he opposed hardliners, sought to avoid war, and sought a soft Japanese surrender in 1945 that enabled a peaceful American occupation of Japan after the war.
After numerous minor diplomatic appointments, Grew was the Ambassador to Denmark and Ambassador to Switzerland. In 1924, Grew became the Under Secretary of State, and in this position he oversaw the establishment of the U.S. Foreign Service. Grew was the Ambassador to Turkey and the Ambassador to Japan 1932-1941, where he opposed American hardliners and recommended negotiation with Tokyo to avoid war. He was the ambassador in Tokyo at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as well and was interned until American and Japanese diplomats were formally exchanged in 1942. On return to Washington he became the number two official in the State Department as Under Secretary, and sometimes served as acting Secretary of State. He promoted a soft peace with Japan that would allow the Emperor to maintain his status, which did become policy and which facilitated the Emperor's decision to surrender in 1945.

Early life

Grew was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in May 1880 to a wealthy Yankee family. He was groomed for public service. At the age of 12 he was sent to Groton School, an elite preparatory school whose purpose was to "cultivate manly Christian character". Grew was two grades ahead of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During his youth, Grew enjoyed the outdoors, sailing, camping, and hunting during his summers away from school. Grew attended Harvard College, graduating in 1902.

Career

Following graduation, Grew made a tour of the Far East, and nearly died after being stricken with malaria. While recovering in India, he became friends with an American consul there. This inspired him to abandon his plan of following in his father's career as a banker, and he decided to go into diplomatic service. In 1904 he was a clerk at the consulate in Cairo, Egypt, and then rotated through diplomatic missions in Mexico City, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, and again in Berlin. He became acting chief of the State Department's Division of Western European Affairs during the war, and was the secretary of the American peace commission in Paris.

Ambassador to Denmark and Switzerland

From April 7, 1920, until October 14, 1921, Grew served as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark appointed by President Woodrow Wilson. He was preceded by Norman Hapgood and succeeded by John Dyneley Prince. He replaced Hampson Gary as the United States Ambassador to Switzerland, appointed by President Warren Harding. In 1922, he and Richard Child acted as the American observers at the Conference of Lausanne. Grew served as Ambassador until March 22, 1924, when Hugh S. Gibson replaced him.

Under Secretary of State (1924–1927)

From April 16, 1924, until June 30, 1927, Grew served as the Under Secretary of State in Washington under President Calvin Coolidge, taking over from William Phillips.

Ambassador to Turkey

In 1927, Grew was appointed as the American ambassador to Turkey. He served in Ankara for five years from 1927 until 1932. at which point he was offered the opportunity to return to the Far East.

Ambassador to Japan

In 1932, Grew was appointed by President Herbert Hoover to succeed William Cameron Forbes as the Ambassador to Japan, where he took up his posting on June 6. Ambassador and Mrs. Grew had been happy in Turkey, and were hesitant about the move, but decided that Grew would have a unique opportunity to make the difference between peace and war between the United States and Japan. The Grews soon became popular in Japanese society, joining clubs and societies there, and adapting to the culture, even as relations between the two countries deteriorated.
One major episode came on 12 December 1937: the USS Panay incident, where the Japanese military bombed and sank the American gunboat Panay while it was anchored in the Yangtze River outside Nanking in China. Three American sailors were killed. Japan and the United States were at peace. The Japanese claimed that they did not see the American flags painted on the deck of the gunboat, apologized, and paid an indemnity. Nevertheless, the attack outraged Americans and caused U.S. opinion to turn against the Japanese.
One of Grew's closest and most influential Japanese friends was Prince Iyesato Tokugawa who was the president of Japan's upper house, the House of Peers. During most of the 1930s, these two men worked together in various creative diplomatic ways to promote goodwill between their nations. The 1937 photo illustration to the right reveals them at a luncheon linked to commemorating the Japanese gifting of Cherry Blossom Trees to the U.S. in 1912.
Historian Jonathan Utley argues before Pearl Harbor Grew took the position that Japan had legitimate economic and security interests in greater East Asia, and he hoped that President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull would accommodate these through high-level negotiations. However Roosevelt, Hall, and other top American officials were strongly opposed to Japanese massive intervention in China, and were negotiating agreements to send American warplanes to China, and negotiating with Great Britain and the Netherlands to cut off sales of steel and oil that Japan needed for aggressive warfare. Other historians argue that Grew was putting far too much trust in the power of his moderate friends in the Japanese government. Grew's report was provided to Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, and Admiral Husband Kimmel, Commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, but it was discounted by everyone involved in Washington and Hawaii.
Grew served as ambassador until December 8, 1941, when the United States and Japan severed diplomatic relations during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. All Allied diplomats were interned. On April 18, 1942, American B-25 bombers flying from a U.S. carrier made the Doolittle Raid, bombing Tokyo and other cities. Grew witnessed the attack while interned. When he realised the low-flying planes over Tokyo were American he thought they may have flown from the Aleutian Islands, as they appeared too large to be from a carrier. Embassy staff were "very happy and proud".
In accordance with diplomatic treaties, the United States and Japan negotiated the repatriation of their diplomats via neutral territory. In July 1942, Grew and 1,450 other American and foreign citizens went via steamship from Tokyo to Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa aboard the Japanese liner Asama Maru and her backup, the Italian liner Conte Verde. In exchange the U.S. sent home the Japanese diplomats along with 1,096 other Japanese citizens.

The atomic bomb dilemma

Grew wrote in 1942 that while he expected Nazi Germany to collapse as the Kaiser's German Empire had in 1918, he did not expect the Japanese Empire to do so:
Grew became a member of a committee, along with the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, and the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, that sought to work out an alternative to the use of the atomic bomb as a weapon, in order to bring about Japan's surrender. Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy drafted a proposed surrender demand for the Committee of Three, which was incorporated into Article 12 of the Potsdam Declaration. The original language of the Proclamation would have increased the chances for Japanese surrender as it allowed the Japanese government to maintain its emperor as a "constitutional monarchy". President Harry S. Truman, who was influenced by Secretary of State James Byrnes during the trip via warship to Europe for the Potsdam Conference, changed the language of the surrender demand. Grew knew how important the emperor was to the Japanese people and believed that the condition could have led to Japanese surrender without using the atomic bombs.

Under Secretary of State (1944–1945)

Grew returned to Washington in 1942 and served as a special assistant to Secretary Hull. In 1944 he was promoted to director of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs. From December 1944 to August 1945 he served once again as undersecretary of state. a fierce anti-communist, he opposed cooperation with the Soviets; President Roosevelt wanted closer relationships with Joseph Stalin, but the new President Harry Truman did not. Grew was again appointed as an Under Secretary of State serving from December 20, 1944 until August 15, 1945. He served as the Acting Secretary of State for most of the period from January through August 1945 while the Secretaries of State Edward Stettinius and James F. Byrnes were away at conferences. Among high-level officials in Washington, Grew was the most knowledgeable regarding Japanese issues. Grew was also the author of an influential book about Japan, titled Ten Years in Japan. Grew advocated a soft peace that would be acceptable to the Japanese people, and maintain an honorable status for the Emperor. He successfully opposed treating the Emperor as a war criminal, and thereby prepared the way for a speedy Japanese surrender, and friendly postwar relations during which Japan was closely supervised by American officials.

Forcible return of Soviet POWs

By May 1945, the U.S. held a number of Soviet prisoners-of-war who had been captured while serving voluntarily or involuntarily in some capacity in the German Army, mostly as rear area personnel.
Unlike the German prisoners, who were looking forward to release at war's end, the Soviet prisoners urgently requested asylum in the United States, or at least repatriation to a country not under Soviet occupation, as they knew they would be shot by Joseph Stalin as traitors for being captured.
The question of the Soviet POWs' conduct was difficult to determine, though not their fate if repatriated. Most of the Soviet POWs stated that they had been given a choice by the Germans: volunteer for labor duty with the German army, or be turned over to the Gestapo for execution or service in an arbeitslager been captured alive, 2) had been 'contaminated' by contact with those in bourgeois Western nations, and 3) had been found in service with the German army.
Notified of their impending transfer to Soviet authorities, a riot at their POW camp erupted; while no one was killed by the guards, some were wounded while other Soviet prisoners hanged themselves; President Truman granted the men a temporary reprieve. Nevertheless, Grew, as Acting Secretary of State, signed an order on July 11, 1945 forcing the repatriation of the Soviet POWs to the Soviet Union. Soviet cooperation, it was believed, would prove necessary to remake the face of postwar Europe. On August 31, 1945, the 153 survivors were officially returned to the Soviet Union; their ultimate fate is unknown.

Other work

Grew's book Sport and Travel in the Far East was a favorite one of Roosevelt's. The introduction to the 1910 Houghton Mifflin printing of the book features the following introduction written by Roosevelt:
In 1945, after Grew left the State Department, he wrote two volumes of professional memoirs, published in 1952.

Personal life

Grew married Alice Perry, the daughter of premier American impressionist painter Lilla Cabot Perry, daughter of Dr. Samuel Cabot and her husband, noted American scholar Thomas Sergeant Perry. Through her paternal grandfather, she was a great-granddaughter of famed American naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry. Together, Joseph and Alice were the parents of:
He died two days before his 85th birthday on May 25, 1965.

Descendants

Grew's grandson, Jay Pierrepont Moffat, Jr., was the United States Ambassador to Chad from 1983 to 1985.

In popular culture

In the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, a historical drama about the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the part of US Ambassador Joseph Grew was played by Meredith Weatherby.

Published works