794.00/4–553
No. 641
The Ambassador in Japan (Murphy) to the Director
of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs (Young)1
Dear Ken: I lunched with Mr. Yoshida on April 2 at his house in Oiso and after lunch he handed me a confidential aide-mémoire of which a copy is enclosed.
On March 24 he also wrote me a penned note, a copy of which is enclosed.2
The three items which he mentions in these communications are very much on his mind, viz., (1) a World Bank loan for power development; (2) Japanese administration of Amami Oshima; and (3) release and/or reduction of terms of Japanese war criminals.
I don’t know what, if anything, the Department can do about any of these, and I gave Mr. Yoshida no assurance that anything could be done while at the same time expressing sympathy in these issues which are of obvious importance in the electoral campaign.3 I promised to pass them on to you for whatever consideration might be possible. Mr. Yoshida reiterated several times, as has Mr. Okazaki, that if some reassuring public statement could be vouchsafed by the United States on these subjects, it would be of great value to him.
All the best to you.
Yours sincerely,