Office of the Historian

740.00119 FEAC/6–1046: Telegram

The Political Adviser in Japan (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State

confidential
priority
Tokyo, June 10, 1946.
[Received June 11—11 a.m.]

260. (1) Agenda for Allied Council meeting June 12:

1.
Additional areas in which the Japanese may conduct fishing and whaling;
2.
Resumption of relations between Japanese labor organizations and labor organizations in other countries;
3.
Disposition of government property;
4.
Rural land reform;
5.
Integration of repatriates into the national life of Japan;
6.
Operation of Japanese merchant marine;
7.
Dissolution of Japan Lumber Company, Limited, and local lumber companies;
8.
Address of the People’s Meeting, 1 May 1946.

(2) All items except No. 8 placed on the Agenda by the Supreme Commander; Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are holds-over from last meeting. Item No. 8 proposed by Soviet member is hold-over from meeting of April 29 and May 15 and is being continued at request of Soviet member.

(3) During meeting I shall expect to make comment as follows:

(a)
At opening of meeting: “Before opening our regular proceedings it is appropriate to mark the sad circumstance that, since the last meeting, our valiant ally, the Soviet Union, has suffered the loss of its wartime chairman of the presidium of the Soviet Supreme Council, Mr. Mikhail Kalinin. I speak for the Supreme Commander and, I am sure, for the other members in tendering to the member for the USSR the sincere condolences of this Council on the death of a great Soviet leader.”
(b)
Item No. 1, fishing and whaling: “I have asked the Secretary General to place this item first on the agenda because of the growing urgency of the food problem in Japan, and I assume that the members will be agreeable to my action in so doing. You have doubtless read in the press recent reports in regard to the number of persons being found dead in the streets from starvation. The number is increasing. Since November from 12 to 1300 persons are known to have died from [Page 246] starvation in the Tokyo–Yokohama areas. During May the known deaths were 267—an average of 9 every day during the month. I do not have figures for deaths in other areas but mine operators have reported to Headquarters that many of the miners are unable to continue performing maximum work because of physical deterioration due to lack of sufficient food. Operators of spindles and steel mills also report that the laborers are not able to keep up with the heavy work.
“I express the hope that the members are prepared to offer definitive comment in this matter in order that action on it may not be further delayed. It is not a problem which conflicts in any way with any other problem before us and it should, I believe, offer no great difficulties for decision. There is a corollary question of obtaining Soviet permission for the Japanese to resume fishing off Kamchatka, which has been taken up with the Soviet Govt. It is my understanding that the reply of the Soviet Government was in the negative but it may be that renewed consideration can be given to the matter. Our immediate problem today is the question of the expansion of fishing areas as indicated on the maps which have been furnished each member.”
(c)
Item No. 5, repatriation: “Attached to the Chief of Staff’s letter is a map tabulation and also a table dated 4 June giving the approximate original strength of Japanese nationals in various areas, the number evacuated to date and the number still to be evacuated. These figures are a little over a week old and as the repatriation from certain areas has been progressing according to schedule, they are not of course absolutely up to date but furnish us an approximation sufficiently close for our purposes. Here [There?] is perhaps a discrepancy in the figures listed for Manchuria because we do not know where all of the Japanese troops and other nationals captured by the Soviet Army are situated at present. Perhaps the Soviet member will be in position to furnish us that information.”
(d)
Item No. 8, so-called address of the People’s Meeting of May 1: “As No. 8 on the agenda, we still have the petition of May 1 entitled ‘Address of the People’s Meeting’. This subject was retained on the agenda at the request of the Soviet member and we now have it before us the 3rd time. It will be recalled that the Soviet member was dissatisfied with the report which I made to the Council at the last meeting relating to our investigation of the allegations made in the petition. At his request, I asked for additional investigation, that investigation has now been made, and I report to the Council that no evidence has been produced to support the allegations, which are admittedly vague and unspecific. I conclude, as I think we all must, that those allegations have no foundation in fact. In passing it seems to me a most curious circumstance that although our discussions here have been given unusually wide coverage in the Japanese press, no one of the persons purporting to be responsible for the May 1 paper has come forward with any specific information in support of the allegations.”

Atcheson