740.00119 Control(Japan)/11–145: Telegram
The Acting Political Adviser in Japan (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 5—11:48 a.m.]
82. Re our telegram 77, October 30. General Marshall,93 Deputy Chief of Staff, informs me that Yoshida did not call on General MacArthur [Page 815] but in a conversation at Headquarters with himself (General Marshall), chiefly in regard to recent economic directive, he mentioned the question of the diplomatic archives but made no approach seeking a withdrawal or modification of the Supreme Commander’s directive on that subject. It is our guess that the newspaper article quoted in translation in our reference telegram was inspired by the Foreign Office for face-saving home consumption.
[For text of “Basic Initial Post-Surrender Directive to Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers for the Occupation and Control of Japan,” prepared jointly by the Department of State, the War Department, and the Navy Department (adopted November 1 as SWNCC 52/7), and sent to General of the Army Douglas MacArthur by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J.C.S. 1380/15, 3 November) as “Basic Directive for Post-Surrender Military Government of Japan Proper”, see Report of Government Section, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers: Political Reorientation of Japan, September 1945 to September 1948 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949), pages 428, 429 ff. See also A Decade of American Foreign Policy, Basic Documents, 1941–49, prepared at the request of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by the Staff of the Committee and the Department of State, Senate Document No. 123, 81st Congress, 1st session (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1950), page 633.]
- Gen. Richard J. Marshall.↩