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

694.0026/6–2254

No. 773
Memorandum by Alice L. Dunning of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs to the Deputy Director of That Office (McClurkin)¹

confidential

[Washington,] June 22, 1954.

Subject:

• Japanese War Criminals

General Snow informed me that with respect to the NA memorandum, the Clemency and Parole Board decided on June 21 to recommend to the President that Japanese war criminals become eligible for parole after serving 10 (repeat 10) years.²

Under this procedure

34 prisoners will become eligible for parole in 1954

76 prisoners will become eligible for parole in 1955

70 prisoners will become eligible for parole in 1956

42 prisoners will become eligible for parole in 1957

26 prisoners will become eligible for parole in 1958

1 prisoner will become eligible for parole in 1959

–

249

This figure does not include 11 cases which the Board has favorably recommended to the President, 17 cases which the Board has acted on but has not approved and 15 cases with respect to which the Japanese Government has not to date submitted recommendations.

The nine year rule would have made the persons set forth in the table above eligible for parole a year earlier. General Snow points out that 41 of the 70 to become eligible in 1956 become eligible within the first four months of that year.

The General also informed me that the Board on June 21, acted favorably on seven cases. 11 of the Board’s recommendations are now before the President, several for sometime, but action has not been taken by the President. Four of these cases are lifers which involved a reduction of sentence in order to make the prisoner eligible for parole.

The General indicated that the Board has accepted NA’s recommendation to review all cases before the end of 1955. The Board will continue to recommend reductions in sentence so far as possible in order to bring the cases down to the hard core by the end of 1955. In this way recommendations would be transmitted to the President by the end of 1955 with respect to all prisoners except the hard core. General Snow indicates that it is impossible at this time to predict what number will actually constitute the hard core.³

1. Routed through Finn.
2. The action was without reference to the various classes (“A”, “B”, and “C”) of war criminals.
3. In a memorandum to Geoffrey W. Lewis, Deputy Director of the Office of German Affairs, dated July 21, General Snow stated that the President had approved the recommendation of the Clemency and Parole Board on July 12. (694.0026/7–2154)