SDHF Newsletter No.272 Open Letter To Japan National Archives No.3

Open Letter to the National Archives of Japan
Regarding the Special Internet Exhibit
“Diplomatic Negotiation between Japan and the United States”
No.3

March 4, 2020

As reported in No.2 of this series, Prof. Sugihara sent back his response letter to Mr. Kato’s reply letter on January 17, 2020.
Then, the National Archives replied to his questions with the name of Mr. Kato Takeo and Mr. Hatano Sumio, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records on March 13, 2020.
*The second response from the National Archives:
URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/essay-article/1506/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/National2r.pdf
In the above letter, the reason for omitting Prof. Sugihara’s book is explained as;
In producing pages for brief explanation of widely known facts, the person responsible for the task referred to sources he judged necessary for the task and wrote a textbook-like explanation for viewers, without referring to all specialized and scholarly books of excellence. We believe that what the person responsible for the Web pages did was appropriate.
However, the fact that Japan decoded U. S. diplomatic telegram was first disclosed by Prof. Sugihara by his Study on Japan’s Diplomacy after the Opening of the War between Japan and the United States. So, this book should have been definitely necessary source to include in reference materials. No justification for that it was not “necessary” to include.
The National Archives’ letter also writes that “… these events remain controversial to this day … It is professionally reasonable for the person in charge of the public Web exhibit to have avoided depending on the specific interpretation…how the War started.”
But Prof. Sugihara never insists that his view should be adopted as the conclusion at all.
He demands his book should be “included” in the reference materials since it is valuable to discuss about the Pearl Harbor issue as explained above.
Prof. Sugihara sent his third letter raising 4 questions to the National Archives.
*Prof. Sugihara’s third letter:
URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/essay-article/1508/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/National3.pdf

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact