“ ‘We would like to end this war during next year. However, under certain circumstances it is possible that it will have to be continued into the following year.
“ ‘Should Japan become engaged in a war against the United States, Germany, of course, would join the war immediately. There is absolutely no possibility of Germany’s entering into a separate peace with the United States under such circumstances. The Führer is determined on that point.’ ”
That document associates this defendant with the aggression by Japan against the United States in the closest possible way.
Another new document, which is also an intercepted Japanese diplomatic message, is the next one, D-657, which I put in as Exhibit GB-149; and if I might read the first two sentences that show what it is—and I quote—the Japanese Ambassador says:
“At 1:00 p. m. today”—the 8th of December—“I called on Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and told him our wish was to have Germany and Italy issue formal declarations of war on America at once. Ribbentrop replied that Hitler was then in the midst of a conference at general headquarters, discussing how the formalities of declaring war could be carried out so as to make a good impression on the German people, and that he would transmit your wish to him at once and do whatever he could to have it carried out promptly. At that time Ribbentrop told me that on the morning of the 8th”—that is before the declaration of war—“Hitler issued orders to the entire German Navy to attack American ships whenever and wherever they might meet them.
“It goes without saying that this is only for your secret information.”
Then, as a matter of fact, as the Tribunal are aware, on the 11th of December 1941 this Defendant Ribbentrop, in the name of the German Government, announced a state of war between Germany and the United States.
The next stage concerns his attempt to get Japan to attack the Soviet Union.