Joseph Grew

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Joseph Clark Grew was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 27, 1880. He served as the U. S. ambassador to Denmark 1920–1921 and ambassador to Switzerland 1921–1924. In 1924, Grew became the Under Secretary of State and oversaw the establishment of the Foreign Service. Grew was the US Ambassador to Turkey 1927–1932 and the ambassador to Japan beginning in 1932. He was the US ambassador in Tokyo at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and when the United States and Japan declared war on each other in December 1941. He was interned for a short time by the Japanese government but was released and returned to the United States on June 25, 1942.[1] In 1944, Grew resumed his post as Under Secretary of State.

Contents 1 Life 2 Grew and Roosevelt 3 Works 4 Sources 5 External links 6 References 7 Bibliography

[edit] Life

Grew served as Acting Secretary of State for most of the period from January to August 1945 as Secretaries of State Edward Stettinius and James Byrnes were away at conferences. Among high level officials in the Truman Administration, Grew was the most knowledgeable of Japanese issues, having spent so much time in Japan.

Grew was also the author of a profoundly influential book about Japan, titled "10 Years in Japan".

Grew was a member of the "Committee of Three," along with Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. This group sought to find an alternative way to make Japan surrender without using atomic bombs. Assistant Secretary of War John 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." Truman, who was influenced by his Secretary of State James Byrnes during the trip by ship 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. Grew stated, "If surrender could have been brought about in May 1945 or even in June or July before the entrance of Soviet Russia into the war and the use of the atomic bomb, the world would have been the gainer."^{[citation needed]}

Grew's daughter, Alice de Vermandois Grew married Jay Pierrepont Moffat, Ambassador to Canada in Hancock, New Hampshire in 1927.

[edit] Grew and Roosevelt

Grew's book Sport and Travel in the Far East was a favorite of Theodore Roosevelt. The Introduction to the 1910 Houghton Mifflin printing of the book features the following introduction written by Roosevelt:

"My dear Grew,- I was greatly interested in your book "Sport and Travel in the Far East" and I think it is a fine thing to have a member of our diplomatic service able both to do what you have done, and to write about it as well and as interestingly as you have written...Your description, both of the actual hunting and the people and surroundings, is really excellent;..."

In 1943 Grew received a L.H.D. from Bates College. Grew died in 1965.

[edit] Works

• Sport and Travel in the Far East, 1910
• Report From Tokyo, 1942
• Ten Years in Japan, 1944
• Turbulent Era, Volume I, 1952
• Turbulent Era, Volume II, 1952

[edit] Sources

• The Political Graveyard: Joseph C. Grew
• United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission by Country, 1778-2005

[edit] External links

• Annotated bibliography for Joseph Grew from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

[edit] References

• DeConde, Alexander, et al. Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. ISBN 0-684-80658-4.
• Citation from The Encyclopedia of World History Sixth Edition, Peter N. Stearns (general editor), © 2001 The Houghton Mifflin Company, at Bartleby.com.
• Van Der Vat, Dan. Pearl Harbor: An Illustrated History, Basic Books, 2001. ISBN 0-465-08983-6.

[edit] Bibliography

• Grew, Joseph C. Turbulent Era: A Diplomatic Record of Forty Years, 1904-1945, Books for Libraries Press, 1952.
• Heinrichs, Waldo. American Ambassador: Joseph C. Grew and the Development of the American Diplomatic Tradition, Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-19-504159-3.

Preceded by Norman Hapgood	U.S. Ambassador to Denmark 1920–1921	Succeeded by John Dyneley Prince
Preceded by Hampson Gary	U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland 1921–1924	Succeeded by Hugh S. Gibson
Preceded by Abram I. Elkus	U.S. Ambassador to Turkey 1927–1932	Succeeded by Charles H. Sherrill
Preceded by W. Cameron Forbes	U.S. Ambassador to Japan 1932–1941	Succeeded by none (WWII began)