Office of the Historian

740.00119 PW/9–645

Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State to President Truman
Washington, September 5, 1945.

I am presenting for your approval a report by the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee recommending proposed messages for transmittal to General MacArthur78 which contain:

a.
Clarification and exposition to him of the authority which you consider he is to exercise in his position as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers;79 and
b.
Specific instructions concerning the matter of Japanese archives and diplomatic property.

Since General MacArthur anticipates that the Japanese would contest their obligation under the Potsdam Declaration80 to turn over archives and diplomatic property if instructed to do so by him, it is considered important that the whole question of his authority be clarified as well as his being instructed on the question of the diplomatic property and archives.81

This report and the recommended messages clarify beyond a doubt that our relations with Japan do not rest on a contractual basis but on an unconditional surrender. Also that though the statement of intentions in the Potsdam Declaration will be given effect this will not be because we consider ourselves bound in a contractual relationship but because the Potsdam Declaration forms part of our policy stated in good faith with relation to Japan and the peace and security of the Far East.

This report has been approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the message in Appendix “B” (“a” above) has been specifically approved by the Secretaries of State and Navy.82

I recommend your approval.83

Dean Acheson
  1. SWNCC 181/1, not printed.↩
  2. See infra. ↩
  3. Issued on July 26 by President Truman, President Chiang Kai-shek, and Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee; for text, see Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin, (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. ii, p. 1474.↩
  4. For General MacArthur’s directive, October 25, to the Japanese Government, see p. 786.↩
  5. James F. Byrnes and James V. Forrestal, respectively.↩
  6. Notation by Admiral of the Fleet William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Army and Navy: “Approved by the President 6 September 1945.”↩