Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, The Far East, Volume VIII

740.00119 PW/5–1546

The Acting Secretary of State to Mr. Herman H. Dinsmore of the “New York Times”

Washington, May 15, 1946.

My Dear Mr. Dinsmore: The War Department has referred to this Department your letter of April 19, 1946⁹⁸ in which you make certain inquiries with regard to the boundary between the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and Soviet-controlled territory.

According to the Potsdam Declaration, “Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine”. It was agreed at Yalta by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Generalissimo Stalin that “the Kurile islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union”.⁹⁹ No boundary has yet been established to demark Japanese and Soviet territory. Presumably such decision will await the drawing up of a peace treaty.

Your specific questions may be answered as follows:

(1) The Department knows of no agreement regarding the patrol of islands “just off the coast of Hokkaido and ostensibly outside the Russian-controlled zones”.

(2) The Department understands that no instructions have been issued with regard to the employment of Army forces or limitation of their operations in the specific area in question.

(3) There are no islands in the strait between Russian-occupied Saghalin and United States-occupied Hokkaido.

(4) As you are aware the Potsdam Declaration defines Japan as the four main islands “and such minor islands as we determine”. There has been no agreement with the Soviet Union altering this definition and the “minor islands” referred to have yet to be determined.

Sincerely yours,

For the Acting Secretary of State:

Francis H. Russell

Chief Division of Public Liaison

98. Not printed.
99. For text of agreement signed February 11, 1945, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, p. 984.