Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East and Australasia, Volume VII, Part 2

740.00119 Control (Japan)/5–1049

The Chargé in Japan (Huston)¹ to the Secretary of State

secret
No. 298

Tokyo, May 10, 1949.
[Received May 20.]

Subject: Launching of Program to Effect Relaxation of Occupation in Japan

Sir: I have the honor to report that on May 9, 1949, General Headquarters here initiated measures looking to a progressive relaxation of the controls exercised by the Occupation vis-à-vis the Japanese Government and its agencies. On that date the Chief of Staff, Major General Edward M. Almond, called a meeting of all chiefs of Headquarters’ staff sections, as well as his two deputies (SCAP and FEC), and directed them to inaugurate immediately an intensive review of all Scapins (SCAP instructions), verbal orders, and other directives to the Japanese Government with a view to determining those which might be eliminated or modified. Reports are to be submitted by May 23 to the Deputy Chief of Staff (SCAP), who will prepare a consolidated report for submission to the Chief of Staff by May 30. All Scapins and other directives are to be placed in three categories, i.e., (a) those which must be continued, (b) those which may be modified, and (c) those which may be withdrawn, justification to be provided for all directives which the section chiefs feel must be continued in present or modified form.

Making it clear that he was taking this action at the express direction of the Supreme Commander, General Almond stated that the general program of relaxing controls to which Headquarters had been devoted for some time might now be considered as having passed from an “implied” to an “expressed” stage. He noted that the determination to relax Occupation controls had been clearly expressed in General MacArthur’s message on the second anniversary of the Japanese Constitution on May 3, which, after attributing the long duration of the Occupation to “events and circumstances elsewhere beyond your capacity to influence or control”, indicated the Supreme Commander’s purpose to reduce restrictions on Japan’s autonomy in the following words:

“In these two years the character of the Occupation has gradually changed from the stern rigidity of a military operation to the friendly guidance of a protective force. While insisting upon the firm adherence to the course delineated by existing Allied policy and directive, it is my purpose to continue to advance this transition just as rapidly as you are able to assume the attending autonomous responsibility. Thus progressive latitude will come to you in the stewardship of your own affairs.”

A copy of the full text of General MacArthur’s message is enclosed herewith.

Stressing the characterization of the present period of the Occupation as one of “economic rehabilitation”, General Almond declared that the time had come when it was imperative to take practical and effective measures to accord the degree of control exercised by Occupation authorities with the fact that the Occupation had passed from the “stern rigidity of a military operation to the friendly guidance of a protective force”. Prepared forms were then distributed, and the Acting Deputy Chief of Staff (SCAP) explained that each section chief should direct his staff to review all Scapins and other directives of all kinds, including standing verbal orders, requests for information, required reports, directives affecting Japan’s autonomy or administration, and any other instruments of control. The reports are also required to cite any areas of conflicting, duplicating, or overlapping interest as between sections in various fields.

A general air of willing cooperation prevailed among the section chiefs, although Major General William F. Marquat, Chief of ESS (Economic and Scientific Section), on which a major burden will fall in the preparation of these reports, rose to point out the particular difficulties with which he would be faced in undertaking this tremendous task and at the same time carrying on his other work under the multitudinous directives calling upon him to implement the present intensive program of economic rehabilitation. Brigadier General Courtney Whitney, Chief of Government Section, remarked that his section had “issued no directives during the past two years”.

Some 17,000 Scapins and other directives have been issued to the Japanese Government during the period of the Occupation. A large number of these, of course, are now obsolete or inoperative, many of them having been “one-time Scapins” dealing with a single case or operation. It is accordingly obvious that the present program will be able to show impressive results as a matter of adjusted records with respect to the number of Scapins and other directives now in effect, as a great majority of them can simply be struck out as presently inoperative. This will not mean, however, that such clearance of the records can be taken as representing any real relaxation of controls now in existence. The test will come when the various section chiefs determine which of the presently operative controls for which they are responsible can be relinquished and which must be continued, and the effectiveness of the program will be finally determined by the action taken by the Chief of Staff and, ultimately, the Supreme Commander on the various justifications submitted.

This Mission has been responsible for the issuance of very few Scapins, and these have in virtually every instance been of a permissive or informative, rather than a controlling character; they include, for example, authorization for Japan to participate in certain international conferences, permission for Japanese to file claims in the United States for the release and return of vested property, authorization for the Japanese authorities to correspond with Japanese nationals abroad, and similar directives of a character which places no limitations on Japan’s autonomy.

This meeting, which, whether eventually productive of the desired results or not, seems to reflect an honest recognition in General Headquarters of the need for a genuine relaxation of controls and the progressive transfer of responsibilities to the Japanese Government, coincided in point of time with the week-end appearance in the press of news stories regarding the Department’s announcement of May 6 that it had recommended to the Far Eastern Commission the transfer to Japan of increased control of its own affairs in the international and domestic fields (see Mission’s A–115 of May 11, 1949).²

Respectfully yours,

Cloyce K. Huston

[Enclosure]

secret

[Tokyo,] 2 May 1949.

General MacArthur’s Message on 2d Anniversary of Constitution

Today, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the new Japanese constitution, General MacArthur issued the following message:

to the people of japan

Today marks the second anniversary of the birth of New Japan—a Japan conceived in the impoverished aftermath of war’s violence, seeking political stability and social progress through concepts which hold to the primacy of individual liberty, equal opportunity, and personal dignity.

These have been fruitful years as you progressively have come to understand and live by the new and enlightened constitutional precepts. Your basic laws have been recast and your public institutions redesigned. Your selected architects and builders have worked arduously to fabricate a citadel of freedom from those imperishable human norms drawn from experience of the ages. And your house now rests upon a political and social foundation which, if well fortified by the human spirit, should remain impervious to the ideological stresses and strains which threaten all about you.

Your farmers now own the soil they and their forebears long have tilled—your workers now have voice in the conditions of their employment—and your women now exercise influence upon the political and social course of Japan’s destiny, all beneficiaries of human rights and fundamental liberties rendered inalienable by your constitutional mandates. These changes in the moral values of Japanese life have brought about a regeneration of the Japanese edifice. This edifice, if it firmly stands as an impregnable barrier against the forces bent upon its destruction, will strengthen the faith of all peoples in the spirituality of human freedom. And in proportion as you value this freedom you must understand, cherish and preserve it.

The Allied purposes enunciated at Potsdam in many essential respects have been fulfilled, and you have worked diligently and faithfully to discharge your surrender commitments. That Allied forces still occupy your native soil is thus by no means due to fault of yours since the inception of the Occupation, but rather to events and circumstances elsewhere beyond your capacity to influence or control.

In these two years the character of the Occupation has gradually changed from the stern rigidity of a military operation to the friendly guidance of a protective force. While insisting upon the firm adherence to the course delineated by existing Allied policy and directive, it is my purpose to continue to advance this transition just as rapidly as you are able to assume the attending autonomous responsibility. Thus progressive latitude will come to you in the stewardship of your own affairs.

To such end and to insure the continuity of a calm and well ordered progress, I call upon every Japanese citizen on this anniversary of Japan’s rebirth, to safeguard the commonweal by unrelaxed vigilance against the destructive inroads of concepts incredulous of human wisdom, prejudicial to personal dignity, and suppressive of individual liberty. There can be no higher human purpose.

Douglas MacArthur

1. In the absence of the Acting Political Adviser, the Counselor of Mission in Japan was in charge.
2. For press release of May 6, see Department of State Bulletin, May 15, 1949, p. 635; airgram under reference not printed.