794.0221/12–2154: Telegram
No. 841
The Ambassador in Japan (Allison) to the Department of State
1467. Afternoon press today features Defense Secretary Wilson’s announcement of further redeployment1 and fact that at least one army division will be withdrawn from Japan. While I strongly approve of reduction of ground forces in Japan, I greatly fear that manner in which this has been announced without any prior notice to or consultation with Japanese Government may create unfortunate impression here that we are continuing to treat Japan as an unequal partner.
[Page 1812]As both State and Defense Departments are aware, we have recently presented to Japanese Foreign Office strongly worded note expressing our concern at unilateral reduction by Japanese of 4.5 billion yen in 1954 defense appropriation. While situation is not completely analogous nevertheless Japanese can point to fact we have security treaty with them and while there is no obligation on our part under treaty to maintain any specific number of troops in Japan, there does seem to me to be moral obligation at least to give advance notice before public announcements of this sort are made. Embassy and FEC have made considerable effort to get Japanese to discuss their defense problems with us and to engage in joint planning. I do not see how we can continue to expect Japanese to work closely with us if we take sudden action such as this which has appearance of serving only our own ends. Such action also opens both Embassy and FEC who have been continuously discussing these matters with Japanese authorities to charge of bad faith in that they will assume we ourselves had advance knowledge of this action. This is particularly true in view of fact that when original decision for redeployment of US forces in Far East was made last December, Japanese were notified in advance and were told at that time this redeployment would not affect troops in Japan.
I strongly urge that any future plans for alteration in our military strength in Japan be communicated to Japanese in advance of public announcement.