Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Japan, Volume XXIII, Part 1

41. Memorandum From the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Sebald) to the Secretary of State¹

Washington, August 23, 1955.

SUBJECT

• Japanese War Criminals

1. Paragraph 46 of NSC 5516/1, which was approved by the President on April 9, 1955 states: “Expedite the parole of those Japanese war criminals subject to United States control, in a manner not inconsistent with the German war prisoner program, with a view to elimination of this issue if possible no later than the beginning of 1956.” (Tab E)²

2. In accordance with this policy, and in view of overriding political considerations in our relations with Japan, Mr. Robertson approved a memorandum to you (Tab A)³ recommending that Japanese war criminals subject to our control be reduced to a hard core of approximately 50 by the end of the year by expediting present procedures of the Clemency and Parole Board or, failing in this, that you authorize a recommendation to the President for mass parole to the desired level. There are presently 210 Japanese war criminals subject to United States jurisdiction as opposed to 66 Germans. The alternative to these recommendations is to maintain present procedures which will delay the elimination of this issue for more than two years but will maintain judicial forms.

3. The Department of State representative on the Board⁴ stated (Tab B),⁵ and the Acting Legal Adviser concurred (Tab C),⁶ that the Board is not properly concerned with political considerations and that its procedures based on the merits of the individual case will not result in release of all but 50 by the end of the year. This position seems to me to be in conflict with the NSC policy.

4. EUR (Tab D)⁷ nonconcurs in FE’s recommendations on the basis that the introduction of political considerations would impugn the conduct of the war crimes trials and would unfavorably affect the German war criminal situation.

Recommendation

That Mr. Robertson’s recommendations of August 10 (Tab A) be approved.⁸

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.9246/8–2355. Secret. Drafted in NA.
2. Document 28.
3. Dated August 10, not found attached. Among the considerations mentioned by Robertson were: (1) far more Japanese than German war criminals remained subject to U.S. control; (2) the probability that the seven remaining major Japanese war criminals convicted by international tribunal would be paroled by April 1956; (3) a Soviet promise at the London talks between the Soviet Union and Japan to release war criminals in its custody following normalization of relations: (4) the policy on the question set forth in NSC 5516/1; and (5) the representations of the Japanese Government. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.9426/8–1055)
4. Conrad L. Snow.
5. Snow’s August 11 memorandum to John M. Raymond, not found attached. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.9426/8–1155)
6. Raymond’s August 11 memorandum to Robertson, attached but not printed.
7. Memorandum from Livingston T. Merchant to Robertson, August 18, not found attached. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.9426/8–1855)
8. The source text bears no action notation by the Secretary, nor has record of his action in the matter been found elsewhere. In an August 23 memorandum to the Secretary, however, Herman Phleger stated his concurrence with the views of Snow and Raymond. (Ibid., 611.9426/8–2355) Telegram 1870 to Bonn, January 11, 1956, stated that as of that date there were still in confinement 158 Japanese war criminals under U.S. jurisdiction. (Ibid., 694.0026/1–1156)