740.00116 PW/6–446
Draft Prepared by the State Department Member of the State–War–Navy Coordinating Committee (Hilldring)15
2. By direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the letter with its enclosure16 is returned to you herewith for such action as may be appropriate pursuant to the War Crimes Directive, War 85467, 23 April 1946, with the suggestion that it be referred to the International Prosecution Section as the agency having competence under your authority and that you report to Lord Wright in due course the action taken in relation to those listed. For your information our records show that two are dead, twelve have been indicted before the International Military Tribunal in Tokyo, ten more are held in Sugamo Prison, two have been tried and executed17 and many more are under consideration for future prosecution.
- This was an appendix to SWNCC 57/15, October 4, circulated in SWNCC on October 11 and there revised.↩
- Lord Wright had written on March 1 to the Chairman of the Allied Council for Japan, enclosing a list of Japanese war suspects prepared by the Australian Government. These were referred to in SCAP’s telegram, April 21, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. None of the documents cited are printed here.↩
- The two executed were Generals Masaharu Homma and Tomoyuki Yamashita, commanders in chief of the Japanese forces in the Philippines at the outset and at the end of the war, respectively.↩