SOVIET KEEPS SECRET
JAPANESE PEACE FEELERS NOT TRANSMITTED TO ALLIES TOKIO, Aug. 7. Soviet officials knew six months before Russia entered the Pacific War that Japan desired to surrender, but gave no indication of having transmitted “pleading” peace-feelers to Russia’s allies, said the ex-Premier, Admiral Keisure Okada, in an interview.
He added that an official representative of the Japanese Foreign Office made the first peace overtures in January, 1945, during conversations with the Soviet Ambassador to Japan. “Russia’s part in the Pacific War had nothing to do with Japan’s desire to sue for peace, which could have come many months earlier if Russia had promptly relayed the Japanese requests,” Okada said. Other peace overtures, which likewise remained unanswered until the Potsdam declaration, were made through the Ambassador in Moscow. The fundamental basis for the feelers was retention of the Emperor. The last overtures were made' while M. Molotov was in Potsdam last July after Russia had repudiated the neutrality pact with Japan but before her entrance into hostilities.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 26226, 9 August 1946, Page 5
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168SOVIET KEEPS SECRET Otago Daily Times, Issue 26226, 9 August 1946, Page 5
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