ABSTRACT
Grew and his staff returned to the United States on August 25, 1942, having been confined to the embassy in Tokyo for over six months after the outbreak of war. Anti-Japanese feeling at home had reached a peak with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and given Grew's ten years' experience of Japan and his detailed understanding of the Japanese situation, there was great anticipation as to what he had to say. Grew was deluged with requests for speaking engagements, but in view of his public position as special adviser to the secretary of state, his speeches had to conform to official views of the war. At a meeting with Secretary Hull on September 25, 1942, Grew was instructed to confirm the content and schedule of his speeches with the head of the Office of War Information (OWI), Elmer Davis. From his return home up to the end of 1943, Grew traveled the length and breadth of the United States and gave as many as 250 lectures, following an itinerary planned in detail by the OWI.
