Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

Roosevelt Papers

Minutes of a Meeting of the Pacific War Council¹ secret

Washington, January 12, 1944.

Memorandum

The thirty-sixth meeting of the Pacific War Council was held in the Cabinet Room of the Executive Offices, the White House, Washington, D. C, at 12:30 p.m., on Wednesday, January 12, 1944.

Present:	The President.
	The Netherlands Ambassador, Dr. A. Loudon.
	The Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Wei Tao-ming.
	The Canadian Ambassador, Hon. Leighton McCarthy.
	Vice President Sergio Osmena, representing Hon. Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth.
	The New Zealand Minister, Dr. Walter Nash.
	The Australian Minister, Sir Owen Dixon.
	Sir Ronald Campbell, E. E. and M. P., representing Viscount Halifax, the British Ambassador.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

… President Roosevelt informed the Council that his discussions with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and with Marshal Stalin were highly satisfactory—in that both had agreed that Japan should be stripped of her island possessions² and that the civil control of the islands north of the equator should be taken over by the United Nations,³ while the policing of the Western Pacific and, therefore, the necessary air and naval bases should be taken over by those powers capable of exercising effective military control.⁴ Marshal Stalin had specifically agreed to the idea that Manchuria, Formosa and the Pescadores should be returned to China;⁵ that the Koreans are not yet capable of exercising and maintaining independent government and that they should be placed under a 40-year tutelage;⁶ that Russia, having no ice-free port in Siberia, is desirous of getting one and that Marshal Stalin looks with favor upon making Dairen a free port for all the world, with the idea that Siberian exports and imports could be sent through the port of Dairen and carried to Siberian territory over the Manchurian Railroad in bond.⁷ He agrees that the Manchurian Railway should become the property of the Chinese Government.⁸ He wishes all of Sakhalin to be returned to Russia and to have the Kurile Islands turned over to Russia in order that they may exercise control of the straits leading to Siberia.⁹

President Roosevelt stated that it was extremely gratifying to him to find that the Generalissimo and Marshal Stalin saw “eye to eye” with him on all major problems of the Pacific and that he felt that there would be no difficulty in reaching agreements about the control of the Pacific once Japan had been completely conquered.

President Roosevelt stated that he thinks the Pacific War Council is the body that should work out preliminary studies about the final solution of the Pacific problems as all interested powers are represented in the Council except Russia, whose agreement might be expected in view of the discussions the President had already had with Marshal Stalin.

President Roosevelt also recalled that Stalin is familiar with the history of the Liuchiu Islands and that he is in complete agreement that they belong to China and should be returned to her¹⁰ and further that the civil administration of all islands now controlled by Japan should be taken over by the United Nations with, as stated before, military control of specific strong points assigned as necessary to maintain the peace. President Roosevelt stated that he believed that everyone agreed that the civil administration of the Pacific Islands is a responsibility that should be carried out for the benefit of the populations¹¹ and that their administration will always be a source of expense rather than profit.¹²

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Wilson Brown

Rear Admiral, U. S. N.

1. The Pacific War Council consisted of representatives of those signatories of the Declaration by United Nations which were fighting in the Pacific. It met from time to time at Washington under Roosevelt as chairman.
2. For the Cairo Declaration, December 1, 1943, in which Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek stated that it was “their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914”, see ante, p. 448. For Stalin’s concurrence in the Cairo Declaration, see ante, p. 566.
3. For statements by Stalin indicating agreement with the idea that the islands in the vicinity of Japan should remain under strong control, and that “strong points” then in the hands of Japan should remain in the hands of the Allies, and for Molotov’s statement that “strong points” taken from Germany or Japan could be under the control of Great Britain or the United States or both, see ante, pp. 532, 554, and 570, respectively.
4. For discussions of the control of strategic “strong points” by sufficiently powerful countries or by a world organization in the interests of preserving peace, see ante, pp. 510–511, 533.
5. See the Cairo Declaration and Stalin’s concurrence therein.
6. In the Cairo Declaration, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek expressed the determination of their three countries that “in due course Korea shall become free and independent”. No other record has been found of agreement at Cairo or Tehran that the Koreans should be placed “under a 40-year tutelage”.
7. See ante, p. 567, and Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pp. 378–379, 768.
8. No other record has been found of agreement by Stalin at Tehran that the Manchurian Railway should become the property of the Chinese Government. For a reference to the lack of rail connections at Petropavlovsk, see ante, p. 567. According to United States Relations With China, p. 113, footnote 1, Soviet use of the Manchurian railways was discussed informally during the Tehran Conference. The authority for this statement has not been ascertained.
9. No other specific record has been found of the expression of these desires by Stalin at Tehran. For statements by Stalin concerning the control of the islands) in the vicinity of Japan and the control of the Straits in the approach to Vladivostok, see ante, pp. 532, 567. See also Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pp. 378–379.
10. No other record has been found of any expression of views by Stalin at Tehran concerning the Ryukyu (Liuchiu) Islands.
11. For discussions at Tehran concerning the welfare of dependent peoples, see ante, pp. 485, 486, 571.
12. For a reference to the costs of occupation of bases which might be placed under trusteeship, see ante, p. 554.