Office of the Historian

164. Briefing Paper Prepared in the Office of the Operations Coordinator1

Washington, May 29, 1957.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE RYUKYUS

Briefing Paper:

A. Letter from State to the Bureau of the Budget attaching proposed Executive Order.

The draft Executive Order on the administration of the Ryukyus has been agreed upon between Defense and State and was forwarded to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget by Mr. Robertson last evening. A copy of the transmitting letter, and the draft Executive Order are at Tab A.2

Salient points are:

(1)
The Secretary agreed to delete a sentence in the preamble referring to “Japan’s residual sovereignty” and reaffirmed [reaffirming?] that the U.S. does not seek permanent possession of the Ryukyu Islands.3
(2)
State and Defense agreed in a separate Memorandum of Understanding that there should be continuing policy coordination between State and Defense on the administration of the Ryukyus.4
(3)
State and Defense have agreed that there should be a resident military Governor in the Ryukyus. The problem of the channel of communication of the Governor has not yet been resolved. State hopes that he will be instructed to communicate through the Pentagon; Defense has held that he should communicate through the Military Command at Honolulu.5
  1. Source: Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 62 D 430, Japan. Secret.↩
  2. Neither Robertson’s May 29 letter nor the undated draft order was found attached. Copies are ibid.,FE Files: Lot 56 D 19, B.↩
  3. The preamble in the final version is similar in substance to the preamble in the draft cited in footnote 2 above.↩
  4. The text reads: “In view of their respective responsibilities under the Executive Order providing for the administration of the Ryukyus, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State agree that they shall maintain continuing policy coordination with respect thereto.” (Attached to Robertson’s letter cited in footnote 2 above.)↩

  5. A memorandum prepared in U/OP on June 4 reads in part as follows: “On the question of channels of communication, there has been tentative agreement [between State and Defense] that, as a general procedure, all communications from the High Commissioner will be direct to Washington (Department of the Army) with info copies to the Army Commander in Hawaii. This agreement is subject to final confirmation in the Pentagon.” (Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 62 D 430, Japan) In Executive Order 10713 as issued, the term “High Commissioner” was used instead of “Governor”.

    President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10713 on June 5. The text is printed in the Federal Register, vol. 22, no. 110 (June 7, 1957), pp. 4007–4009. A press release briefly outlining the order’s provisions was released simultaneously. The text was transmitted to Tokyo in telegram 2698, June 4, as modified by telegram 2712, June 5. (Department of State, Central Files, 794C.0221/6–457 and 794C.0221/6–557, respectively)

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