Page 1 of
Enclosure no. 1 to despatch no. 148
Dated February 7, 1949 from the
American Embassy, Lima.                           UNCLASSIFIED

                           TRANSLATION
(Excerpt from article appearing in El Comercio of February 5, 1949)

              "WITH THE AMBASSDOR OF PERU IN ITALY,
                DOCTOR RICARDO RIVERA SCHREIBER"
...........

     "Look, I am going to tell you how things happened," the Ambassador
said to us when we asked him how his intervention in the announcement
of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came about.  "I did not seek
the information, lacking the means for that, and moreover it was com-
pletely outside the sphere of my activities.  It came to me directly
in a casual manner.  In the Peruvian Consulate in Yokohama we had a
Japanese interpreter who turned out to be a member of the Nipponese
secret police.  This man made frequent journeys to Tokyo and visited
the Embassy on occasions in his capacity as translator.  I never had
a discussion with him, but my valet told me many times of his prophecies
concerning international political incidents, and I finally became
aware that they always came true.  In these circumstances, on a certain
day my valet came to me highly excited and told me "Powerful JapanÑ
Japan is going to war and will destroy the American fleet".  I paid
no great attention to these words, but ten days afterward the valet
again appeared very nervous and repeated the same thing, and upon
questioning him as to whether the destruction of the United States
fleet would be accomplished in San Diego (California) he said no,
that it would be in the middle of the Pacific.  As you understand,
the middle of the Pacific was Pearl Harbor.  A little more interested
now, I asked if he had had one of his customary visits from the inter-
preter of the Consulate and I obtained an affirmative response.  Upon
ascertaining when the former visit had been made, I know that it was
exactly ten days before, coinciding precisely with the previous state-
ment of my valet.  This worried me a little, although I considered
the possibility that such a thing could occur very remote, but then
something unusual occurred which decided me to act without further
delay.

     "I was in the Embassy when they announced a visitor, Professor
Yoshuda of the University of Tokyo, who was giving courses on South
American and often came to the Embassy to secure date, leaflets and
books on Peru.  Yoshuda was my friend and a decided antimilitarist.
Upon receiving him and after completing the prolonged greetings
required by Nipponese courtesy, the professor seized with great
excitement, revealed to me that we were on the brink of a great
misfortune which would bring everlasting ruin upon his country. He
told me that Admiral Yamamoto had already outlined the plan to attack
the American fleet in Pearl Harbor and that a sham battle of attack
was at the very moment being brought to a conclusion in one of the
islands to the south of Japan; he added that Yamamoto had prepared the
suicide aviators and that the plan was ready to enter into action
without the least doubt.

     "Before a declaration of such magnitude, itemized in such signi-
ficant details, I became apprehensive with dread and immediately
proceeded to call Mr. Joseph Grew, the North American Ambassador, on
the telephone, and requested an urgent interview.  I developed a
cordial friendship with Mr. Grew, who immediately told me to take

                                                            my car