Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 2

Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 64 D 199

No. 712
Memorandum of Conversation, by Edward G. Piatt of the Executive Secretariat¹

secret

[Washington,] October 30, 1953.

Subject:

• Conversation Between the Secretary and Mr. Robertson on the Japanese Negotiations

Mr. Robertson wanted to make sure that the Secretary concurred in the proposed arrangement on GARIOA which was being worked out in the talks with Mr. Ikeda. The intention is to incorporate in the communiqué which will be issued after the talks a statement to the effect that a settlement of the GARIOA claims has been put off to a future meeting. Mr. Robertson noted the difficulties which any settlement now would place on Japan. Mr. Ikeda nad stressed that it would be particularly unfortunate at this time to agree to any payment, since other countries were clamoring for reparations settlements.

The Secretary said he concurred. It was important to keep open the GARIOA claims since they might come in handy in the future as a means of perhaps obtaining from the Japanese certain United States objectives. He told Mr. Robertson that he had originally inserted payment of these claims into the treaty with Japan not only in an effort to recoup some of the United States outlay, but also to protect Japan. At such time as other countries might clamor for reparations payments, we could always chime in and say that nothing could be paid them until Japan had reached a settlement with us.

The Secretary asked Mr. Robertson to inquire if the German settlement had been made on the basis of a firm figure. This was important because the bookkeeping on the GARIOA funds had been very fuzzy and sloppy.

The Secretary recounted to Mr. Robertson a conversation he had had yesterday with a Japanese representative of the American Federation of Labor, during the course of which the Japanese had warned him of Communist infiltration in Japan.² Two points he made, which the Secretary suggested Mr. Robertson look into, were the conditions around the Army camps and the dressing of Japanese Security Reserve Forces in American uniforms. Both of these were having a deleterious effect on United States–Japanese relations.

1. This memorandum bears the following typed notation: “This document is for information only. Since it is an informal resume prepared to assist Departmental coordination on a day-to-day basis, it does not have the status of a cleared directive or an official Departmental record.”
2. Perhaps a reference to the Secretary’s conversation held on Oct. 29 with Richard Deverall, an American who had been Asian Representative, stationed in Japan, of the Free Trade Union Committee of the American Federation of Labor.