178. Memorandum by the Ambassador to Japan (MacArthur)1
The following is a summary of the conclusions reached at the meeting with the President this afternoon. The meeting was attended by Secretary Dulles, Deputy Secretary of Defense Quarles, Admiral Radford, Assistant Secretary of Defense Sprague, Assistant Secretary of State Robertson, Ambassador MacArthur, General Goodpaster and Mr. Hagerty.
- 1.
- The President will speak to Mr. Kishi about the withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Japan. The President would make clear that we did not wish to maintain forces in Japan unless Japan wanted them, and also that we had already decided to reduce our forces by forty per cent in the next twelve months including the withdrawal of all ground combat forces, both Army and Marines.
- 2.
- The President requested Secretary Dulles to give Mr. Kishi a good briefing on disarmament.
- 3.
The President approved the Secretary’s formula for dealing with the sixty-six Class B and C war criminals and authorized him to discuss his formula with Mr. Kishi. (Note: The timing is bad to make any formal announcement of the formula at the end of the visit because [Page 361] of the Girard case. Therefore, we would have to speak with Mr. Kishi in confidence about this matter and would also have to have any reference in the communiqué to the war criminal situation very general; perhaps along the lines that Mr. Kishi had raised this problem and that the United States would study it, etc. There is considerable to be said for trying to avoid a reference to this problem in the communiqué.)
[Numbered paragraph 4 (7½ lines of source text) not declassified]
- 5.
- At the conclusion of the meeting, the President asked that the State Department devise, for his consideration, a formula to permit the return of certain Bonin Islanders. While a decision as to whether or not some of the islanders would be permitted to return was deferred, the President nonetheless wanted to have a look at a possible formula. (Note: Mr. Robertson has sent to the Secretary for approval a memo to the President outlining a formula.)2
- 6.
- The Secretary discussed with the President Japanese pressures for us to take legal action against the states of Alabama and South Carolina because of their discriminatory laws against Japanese textiles. The President approved the following position:
We would explain to Kishi the complications in taking legal action and the strong desirability of obtaining voluntary repeal next year after the legislatures reconvene. If Kishi presses hard for legal action the Secretary would commit the U.S. Government to institute legal proceedings if we do not succeed in obtaining voluntary repeal the first half of next year.