Office of the Historian

132. Memorandum of Conversation0

Washington, January 19, 1960, 10–11:40 a.m.

SUBJECT

  • U.S.-Japanese Relations

PARTICIPANTS

  • The President
  • Prime Minister Kishi

ALSO PRESENT

  • Foreign Minister Fujiyama
  • Ambassador Koichiro Asakai
  • Mr. Haruki Mori
  • Mr. Toshiro Shimanouchi
  • The Secretary
  • Ambassador MacArthur
  • Assistant Secretary Parsons
  • Mr. James J. Wickel, Interpreter

The President and the Prime Minister briefly discussed the progress that had been made in U.S.-Japanese relations since the Prime Minister’s visit in 1957. The President expressed pleasure that many of the problems discussed during the 1957 visit had been solved or at least progress made towards their solution. The Prime Minister agreed and [Page 260] expressed pleasure at the increasingly close cooperation between the two countries and the energetic efforts to settle differences to the mutual benefit of both countries.

The President and the Prime Minister also discussed Japanese-American trade relations. The Prime Minister noted the rapid increase in trade between the two countries and said that his administration was developing a program to relax dollar restrictions in order to have a more healthy economic development. The President expressed appreciation for the Prime Minister’s understanding of the difficulties in the United States on such trade problems as textiles and stainless steel flatware.1 He said that Japanese control of exports to the U.S. in these areas was very helpful in reducing demands for high protective tariffs. He hoped that future problems, which might be unavoidable, could be worked out in the same spirit of cooperation.

The President raised the question of the settlement of the GARIOA claims and indicated that any settlement between the United States proposal of $643 million and the Japanese proposal of $550 million would be acceptable to him. He urged an early settlement so that the issue could not be exploited by politicians in either country to the detriment of U.S.-Japanese relations. The Prime Minister said he would discuss GARIOA with Secretary Herter.

The President finally assured the Prime Minister that the United States intends to consult with Japan under the new treaty fully, completely, and as equals. [1 line of source text not declassified]

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Parsons. The meeting was held at the White House. Herter met with Eisenhower on January 18 to discuss potential topics in this conversation. (Memorandum of conference with the President by Goodpaster; ibid.) See Supplement. See also Documents 133–138.↩
  2. See footnote 2, Document 94.↩