Office of the Historian

740.00119 FEAC/12–2848

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Northeast Asian Affairs (Bishop)

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[Washington,] December 28, 1948.

Subject: Rescission of Pre-FEC U.S. Purge Directives.

There are attached (1) a draft telegram from the JCS to SCAP advising that paragraphs 5b, 23 and 40 of the United States Basic Initial Post-Surrender Directive of November 8, 1945,1 having to do [Page 942] with implementation of a purge program in Japan, are rescinded, and (2) a memorandum to the U.S. Member of the FEC2 authorizing him to request the Secretary General to circulate for the information of the Commission an attached statement informing the Commission that SCAP has been so advised.

The necessity for the first of these two papers arises from the position taken by SCAP in his radio No. C–65997 of December 43 that the purge provisions in the above-cited directive conflict with the provisions of paragraph 13 on the purge in NSC 13/2. The second paper has been prepared as a matter of courtesy to the other members of the FEC, so that they may know that the purge provisions in the directive, circulated to the Commission on March 11, 1946 as FEC–015, have been rescinded.

The two papers have been informally cleared with Mr. Reid, Col. Hendricks and Mr. Pollard of the Army Department.

[Annex]

Draft Telegram From Joint Chiefs of Staff to SCAP4

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1.
You are informed that Paras 5b, 23, and 40 of the United States Basic Initial Post-Surrender Directive of November 8, 1945 (JSC Directive Serial No. 18), having to do with a purge program for Japan, are rescinded. The parts of the FEC Basic Post-Surrender Policy for Japan5 (WAR–81011 JCS Directive Serial No. 82, 26 June 1947) which have to do with a purge program, and other pertinent FEC policy decisions, remain the sole directives to SCAP in force in connection with the purge.
  1. JCS directive serial 18 not printed; for text of directive, see Political Reorientation of Japan, pp. 428, 429.↩
  2. Not attached to file copy.↩
  3. See memorandum of December 11 by Mr. Butterworth, p. 923, memorandum of December 20, p. 932, and supra.↩
  4. The draft telegram with additional paragraphs of explanation was transmitted to SCAP by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on January 28, 1949, as WAR 83380.↩
  5. FEC policy decision of June 19, 1947; Activities of the Far Eastern Commission, report, p. 49.↩