Joseph Grew

Common card · No. 452377

Joseph Clark Grew (May 27, 1880 – May 25, 1965) was an American career diplomat and Foreign Service officer. He is best known for his long tenure as United States Ambassador to Japan (1932–1941) in the lead-up to Pearl Harbor and for his two stints as the second-in-command at the State Department (1924–1927 & 1944–45). He opposed American hardliners and sought to avoid war. When the war ended, he helped draft the U.S. Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan, which offered relatively generous terms to the defeated Japanese (including the retention of the Japanese monarchy), which facilitated America's peaceful post-war occupation of Japan. After graduating from Harvard College, Grew worked his way up the diplomatic hierarchy. After World War I, he served on the American negotiating team at the Paris Peace Conference and received his first top-level posts, serving as Envoy to Denmark (1920–1921) and Switzerland (1921–1924). During his time in Switzerland, he was America's senior representative...

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