Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI, Part 1

794.00/4–3051

The United States Political Adviser to SCAP (Sebald) to the Director of the office of Northeast Asian Affairs (Johnson)

personal
secret

Tokyo, April 30, 1951.

Dear Alex: We hope through the course of today to be able to telegraph the verbatim text of General Ridgway’s Constitution Day statement to the Japanese people,¹ which, I understand, is being given to the press shortly for release on May 3.

The key paragraph in the statement is the one which states in effect that the Japanese Government has been authorized to re-examine all ordinances based upon SCAP directives, with a view to making necessary changes in accordance with experience to date.

I attended a staff conference yesterday over which General Ridgway presided, and at which the proposed statement was discussed. The purpose of the paragraph mentioned above is to give the Japanese Government authority to re-examine the entire purge question, with a view to ameliorating the purge to the point where it will not be more severe than provided for by FEC Policy Decisions. This is in accordance with the Department’s policy, I believe, as exemplified in Article 13 of NSC 13/2.² Government Section is being charged with inviting the Japanese Government’s attention to the purpose of the paragraph in question, which has purposely been broadly phrased in order not to focus attention specifically upon the purge. It is my understanding that all army and navy officers who became commissioned subsequent to the outbreak of the China Incident in 1937—with perhaps a few minor exceptions—will be included in the depurge. Additionally, large numbers of local officials, teachers, industrialists, government officials, publicists, etc., will probably also eventually be depurged.

When asked for my opinion at the staff conference, I said that this action is long overdue, it is in conformity with U.S. policy, as I understand it, and that the depurge of the many people who would be included in this action will do much to lessen an irritant which has been growing year after year. I said also that this action would go far in cementing future good relations with a select and influential class of Japanese.

It will, of course, take some time before the Japanese Government will be in a position to implement the authority granted in the Constitution Day statement, but I will do everything possible to expedite action, as I believe this is what the Department wants. I might say that the consensus of the conference was that if the cut-off date for military and naval officers should be made early, e.g., as a maximum, 1931, Washington should be queried and support of the United States Government requested. Frank Rizzo, Chief of the Government Section, on the other hand feels that we are on entirely safe ground if 1937 is adopted as the cut-off date.

As the information contained herein reflects the discussion in a highly classified conference, I would appreciate your limiting the information to those who need to know.³

Sincerely yours,

W. J. Sebald

1. Not printed here.
2. For NSC 13/2, see Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. vi, p. 858.
3. For further documentation on this topic, see Mr. Johnson’s reply of May 16, p. 1045.