Office of the Historian

165. Memorandum From the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Murphy) to the Secretary of State1

Washington, June 3, 1957.

SUBJECT

  • The Bonin Islands

I would like to add a word to the attached recommendation by Walter Robertson2 regarding the return of Japanese nationals to the Bonin Islands because of my experience with the question while I was assigned to Japan.

After debate in 1953 with Admiral Radford who was firmly opposed to Japanese return, I inspected the two inhabitable Bonins, i.e. Chi-Chi-Jima and Ha-Ha-Jima, as well as Iwo Jima of the Volcano group.3 The two Bonins, I became convinced, provide an excellent submarine base. Iwo Jima, which the United States occupies, is not so adaptable but is an excellent air base.

The Japanese had removed all civilians to the main islands long before our forces captured the Bonins. They are now governed by the Navy which permitted a small group of half-caste Caucasians to return. Some of these have been permitted to import Japanese wives from Honshu.

The principal Navy argument against the return of the bulk of the former Japanese civilians is that these islands are valuable as a fallback submarine base if we lose our position in the main Japanese islands. It is based on distrust of future Japanese policy. Admitting them to the islands is regarded as a first step in a series of Japanese maneuvers towards our eventual elimination from the islands.

This is a strategic consideration of potential importance. There is no doubt that if Kishi would obtain agreement for the return of some of the islanders, his position would be strengthened. The presence on the islands of a few hundred Japanese civilians should not constitute an insuperable handicap in case of all-out submarine warfare in the Pacific. They could be removed elsewhere as was done by their own military forces in World War II.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 794C.0221/5–757. Secret. A handwritten notation on the source text reads: “Sec saw.”↩
  2. Reference is to Document 150.↩
  3. Murphy inspected the Bonins with Admiral Radford October 2–6, 1952. See Foreign Relations, 1952–1954, vol. XIV, Part 2, p. 1340.↩