894.00/1–2449
The Acting Political Adviser in Japan (Sebald) to the Secretary of State
No. 50
[Received January 31.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s A–184 of December 31, 1948,1 requesting the text of an exclusive interview given by Premier Shigeru Yoshida to the United Press on December 27, 1948, and to transmit herewith the only record of that interview, written by Miles W. Vaughn, United Press General Manager for Asia.2
The Department will observe that Mr. Vaughn quoted Premier Yoshida as being enthusiastic about General MacArthur’s recommendations for economic reconstruction. In that connection he is quoted as stating that his Government is planning the formation of a committee to review “the cases of a number of top-flight industrialists who were purged, possibly unjustly”.
This story was not distributed by the United Press to its clients in Japan.
In subsequent public statements on the same subject Premier Yoshida has emphasized the need to reconsider the purge of village and town headmen and allowed the reconsideration of purged industrialists to appear as incidental (this Mission’s despatch no. 22 of January 14, 19491)
Major Napier, head of the Public Administration Division, Government Section, General Headquarters, SCAP, denied in the English language Nippon Times of January 12, 1949 that an amnesty from the purge was being considered by SCAP.
Apparently undeterred by the warning from Government Section, the Japanese Government is reported proceeding with its plans for a purge review committee. Mainichi on January 17 reported that Justice Minister Ueda has finished drafting a plan for the establishment of such a committee. It states also that the projected system “will liberate purgees only in those cases where the purge is recognized to be clearly unjustifiable”, and that “nobody who should be purged on formal as [Page 623] well as substantial grounds will be cleared”. A translation in full of this Mainichi report is enclosed.
In an editorial on January 12, 1949, Mainichi (in the only editorial on the subject which has recently come to the attention of the Mission) adopts in effect the position taken by General Headquarters, i.e., that abandoning the categories of purgees for substantive charges opens the way to clearance of many persons who ought not to be cleared. Mainichi considered that, should the ban be lifted, “it would be difficult to find a yardstick by which to determine the men of high character and those who are not”. It found that “the public’s estimation of a man’s ability has changed during the past few years” but it believed that “men who can work should be permitted to do so”. This newspaper continued: “In political circles there is a big vacuum. In other fields, new men have filled the vacancies created by the purge. The only difference is that the new men lack experience and are less known. But in the political field, it is disheartening to find fledglings who, because they have been returned to the Diet once or twice, are being considered as competent candidates for cabinet posts. Should the purged politicians return, much activity can be expected, but we would rather see new men come up in the coming general election.” A full translation of this editorial is enclosed.
Respectfully yours,