740.00119 Control(Japan)/10–3145
The Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Clayton) to the Assistant Attorney General (Berge)
Dear Mr. Berge: As you no doubt know, the statement of U.S. policy for the treatment of Japan issued by the White House on September 2389 commits us to breaking up and destroying the influence of the large family combines commonly known as the “Zaibatsu.”
Several of the “Zaibatsu” have presented to General MacArthur plans for their own dissolution. General MacArthur has urged us to permit him to accept these proposals.
It is impossible in view of the very limited information available to us with respect to the present legal organization and method of operation of these combines to approve these plans as meeting our objectives. The problem of breaking up the “Zaibatsu” is too complicated and important for superficial handling.
Therefore, after informal consultations with members of your staff, we have asked the War Department to tell General MacArthur that we are unable to approve the proposals presented as meeting the requirements of U.S. policy, though the adoption of certain parts of them is unobjectionable. To enable us to review similar proposals more intelligently in the future we wish to send a small group of experts in this field to Japan to examine the “Zaibatsu” organizations at first hand and prepare criteria to guide us in deciding when our [Page 812] objective of destroying their influence over Japanese political and economic life has been met. This task is one for which the Department of Justice has unique experience. I should like to enlist your cooperation in selecting a group of five to ten experts—you will know better than I how many will be required—to spend two or three months in Japan preparing this statement of criteria. I should like to suggest that the staff responsible for the enforcement of the Public Utility Holding Company Act90 would be one useful source of personnel for this purpose. Because of the pressure from General MacArthur and the War Department for guidance it would be very helpful if at least two or three people could be found who would be ready to leave by November 15.
I shall be glad to discuss this mission further with you or you may want to make contact directly with Mr. Robert P. Terrill of the Commodities Division who is representing the State Department in this matter.
Sincerely yours,