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

67. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, January 13, 1956¹

Washington, January 13, 1956

SUBJECT

• Invitation to the Secretary to Visit Japan

PARTICIPANTS

• Ambassador Iguchi, Japanese Embassy
• The Secretary
• Mr. William J. Sebald, Deputy Assistant Secretary, FE

The Secretary said that he was sorry to learn that Ambassador Iguchi was returning to Japan, a sentiment which the Ambassador reciprocated. The Ambassador said that he felt he could be useful in strengthening Japanese-American relations as he had spent six years before the war and six years after the war in, or directly concerned with, the United States.

The Ambassador extended the invitation of his Government to the Secretary to visit Japan on his return home from the SEATO Conference at Karachi.² The Secretary said that his schedule had not yet been made firm, but that he would like very much to visit Japan and hoped that this would be possible.³ He said that should he be able to stop over in Japan, the time there would necessarily be very brief. He requested Ambassador Iguchi to convey his appreciation to the Japanese Government for the invitation and said that he should know definitely within two or three days whether a stopover would be possible.

Ambassador Iguchi briefly referred to the problems of the return of Japanese to the Bonin Islands, resumption of Japanese economic activities in the trust area, and the release of Japanese war criminals, and left a brief informal memorandum on these subjects.⁴ He said that the Japanese Government had raised the first two problems with Admiral Radford, and understood that the Department would consult with other Government agencies in an endeavor to find a solution to these problems. Mr. Sebald confirmed that this was correct. The Secretary commented that these are difficult security problems, but that we would look into them with the other Departments concerned. In the case of war criminals, the Secretary thought that we had made considerable progress but pointed out that difficulties had arisen in connection with the release of German war criminals.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 110.11–DU/1–1356. Confidential. Drafted by Sebald.
2. Held March 6–8.
3. Dulles visited Japan March 18–19.
4. Attached to the source text, but not printed. In the section on the Bonins, the memorandum stated the Japanese Government had recently requested the repatriation of 2,639 islanders whose return was particularly desired. If this was found difficult for military or security reasons, Japan desired, according to the memorandum, the repatriation of a smaller number on a trial basis in a manner that would not prejudice the security of U.S. forces in the area.