There was a change of atmosphere in Asia. The bland Pacific air, which for ten years had crackled with Japanese threats, Japanese denunciations, Japanese egomania, grew tensely quiet. In the stillness came a gentle voice from Tokyo. It said plaintively: "Can't we be friends?"
One morning last week Japan's Ambassador to Washington, tall, one-eyed Admiral Nomura, called on President Roosevelt at the White House. He carried with him a letter to the President from Premier Prince Konoye. Prince Konoye wanted the President to discuss with Admiral Nomura the "thoroughgoing settlement" of Japan's...