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

794C.0221/12–2253

No. 721
Memorandum by the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Drumright) to the Secretary of State

confidential

[Washington,] December 22, 1953.

Subject:

• Amami Oshima Transfer Arrangements.

1. You approved the recommendation contained in FE’s memorandum of November 18, 1953¹ (Tab A) that our Ambassador in Tokyo undertake negotiations with the Japanese with respect to the arrangements for the transfer of the Amami Oshima islands to Japan on the basis of the documents which were attached to the memorandum.

2. The negotiations are now virtually complete. Attached as Tab B are the documents² which I propose be approved to effect the transfer. In the course of the negotiations it was agreed that: (a) the transfer arrangements should be expressed in a formal agreement with official minutes rather than an exchange of notes; (b) the United States would pardon the three prisoners convicted by USCAR courts who remain in Okinawa, thereby making unnecessary the assumption by Japan of an obligation to carry out the sentences; (c) the transfer to Japan of specified accounts owing to relief and reconstruction agencies in the Ryukyus should be made without provision that collections from the accounts be made available to USCAR; (d) Japan assume full responsibility to replace “B” yen now circulating in the Amamis with Japanese yen without obligation by the United States to reimburse Japan; and (e) the statement concerning our intentions with respect to the other islands of the Ryukyus be made as a unilateral declaration by the United States rather than as part of a United States-Japanese exchange of notes. In other respects, the agreement achieved by the negotiators is in substance the same as that which you approved as the basis for the negotiations.

3. The Japanese have strongly urged that the agreement be signed on December 24 and become effective December 25. They are calling a special Diet session on December 24 to approve the agreement. In an effort to meet this deadline, clearances of the agreement are being sought in Defense and Treasury simultaneously with our clearance. We informed the Embassy on December 21 that we were trying to complete all clearances by the close of business December 22.

Recommendation

I recommend that you authorize me, as soon as I have received Defense and Treasury clearance, to instruct the Ambassador to sign the proposed agreement, with any minor modifications which may prove necessary in the final negotiation.³

1. From Robertson to the Secretary, not printed. (794C.0221/11–1853)
2. Texts of the documents at Tab B are identical to texts of those signed, exchanged, and agreed upon by the United States and Japan on Dec. 24, with the exception of a Record of a Meeting held on Dec. 24 and of changes in the section pertaining to pending civil court actions in Article V of the main Agreement. See Document 724.
3. Dulles initialed an “Approved” box at the bottom of the source text. Next to his initials is a notation in his handwriting: “subject to Defense and Treasury clearance”.