A Japanese foreign minister met Pope Pius XII and his secretary of state during World War II to seek mediation in a desperate bid to avert war with the United States, eight months before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Vatican documents show.
Yosuke Matsuoka wanted the Holy See to speak to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to try to prevent "a war of mutual destruction," telling Cardinal Luigi Maglione that Tokyo also wanted a ceasefire with China after more than three years of war, according to a summary by the cardinal's office of a meeting on April 2, 1941, between the two.
