Office of the Historian

310.394/10–2152

The Japanese Minister of Embassy (Kamimura) to the Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs (Young)

Washington, October 23, 1952.

My Dear Mr. Young: As you recall, Ambassador Gross remarked in our last meeting with him on August 271 to the effect that Japan’s application for U.N. membership would be taken up by the General Assembly even if the Security Council failed to make a recommendation.2

I would like to know what Ambassador Gross had in mind to go [do?] about this question. Specifically, by what procedure, in what form and approximately at what time does the U.S. Government intend to have the General Assembly take up Japan’s application? Is Item No. 19 of the U.N. Agenda intended to cover this question?3

Again, during the discussions of admission of new members at the last Security Council meetings, Ambassador Austin stressed the need for liberalization of admission procedure. Ambassador Gross also said that actions would be taken in this connection. What are the actions being contemplated by the U.S. Government in order to realize this liberalization? Will a measure to this effect be submitted to the current session of the General Assembly?

If you would be good enough to take the trouble of finding answers to those questions for me or arrange a meeting for me with someone in charge of those questions, I should be grateful. This does not need to be a hurried affair, but I would appreciate it if you would enlighten me or arrange the meeting at your convenience.

[Page 866]

As for the proposition of associate membership for Japan, I have reported the gist of our conversation on October 7 to our Government, and I shall contact you upon our receipt of the reply.

Sincerely yours,

Shinichi Kamimura
  1. This conversation was reported in New York’s telegram 185, Aug. 27; see p. 851.↩
  2. This occurred on Sept. 18 because of the Soviet Union’s negative vote (veto); see Department of State telegram 734, Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m., to the Embassy in Japan. p. 859.↩
  3. Item 19 captioned “Admission of New Members” had two parts:” (a) Status of applications still pending: report of the Security Council, and (b) Request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice…”.↩