894.20211 Tachibana, Itaru/15
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hamilton)
Under instruction and authorization from Mr. Welles I telephoned Mr. Wakasugi, the Japanese Minister, and asked him whether he could call on an urgent matter. He said that he would be glad to come to my office at once. Upon his arrival I told him that I wished to speak with him in regard to the case of the arrest of Lieutenant Commander Tachibana, with regard to which the Japanese Ambassador had spoken to Mr. Welles on June 14. I told Mr. Wakasugi that, out of consideration for the Ambassador and in view of his special interest in preserving and promoting friendly relations between our two countries, the Secretary had given this case very special consideration, as a result of which we had asked the Department of Justice not to go ahead with criminal proceedings against Commander Tachibana but to endeavor to work out an arrangement whereby the criminal proceedings would be dropped and Commander Tachibana would agree to leave this country immediately and never to return. I emphasized to Mr. Wakasugi that our action and attitude in the matter were not to be regarded as a precedent and that what we were doing represented something very special and unusual.
I said that I wished to bring to his attention the very marked contrast between the treatment accorded the Japanese and other foreigners in this country and the treatment accorded American citizens in Japan. I reminded him that Commander Tachibana had, almost immediately after his arrest, been released on bail. I contrasted this with the treatment accorded Mr. James K. Young, an American correspondent in Japan,44 who had been arrested on charges which were certainly not so serious as the charges against Commander Tachibana. I reminded Mr. Wakasugi that Mr. Young had been kept in confinement for some three months, during which time he was allowed only the barest communication with the outside and that only with a representative of the American Embassy under severe limitations. I referred to the arrest of a number of American missionaries in Korea on charges which again could not be regarded as involving matters as serious as the charges against Commander [Page 273] Tachibana. I said that these Americans were not allowed out on bail and had been kept practically incommunicado. I mentioned expressly the case of Matsuo, the Japanese clerk of the American Consulate at Taihoku. I said that we had reason to believe that the charges against Matsuo were the result of a grudge against him on the part of a Japanese police officer in Taiwan because Matsuo refused to cooperate in supplying information relating to the official business of the American Consulate. I said that we had made repeated representations to the Japanese Government in regard to the Matsuo case, but without avail. I said that Matsuo had been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and that Mr. Grew had spoken to Mr. Matsuoka several times since the trial. I mentioned that Mr. Matsuoka had said that he would endeavor to get a pardon for Matsuo, but that no such pardon had been obtained.
I told Mr. Wakasugi that I referred to these cases to bring into clear relief the very special treatment which was being accorded Tachibana. I said that in view of this very special treatment we believed it only fair that the Japanese Government as a mark of reciprocal good-will obtain a full and complete pardon for Matsuo and also accord more liberal treatment to Americans arrested and imprisoned in Korea. I said that the cases to which we were directing the attention of the Japanese Government were not cases comparable with that of Tachibana; that we believed that Matsuo, the interpreter of our Consulate at Taihoku, was entirely innocent; and that the offenses with which the Americans in Korea were charged were not so serious as the offenses with which Tachibana is charged. I repeated that it seemed only fair that the Japanese Government, as a mark of reciprocal good-will, take the steps indicated.
Mr. Wakasugi said that he personally wished to express appreciation of the attitude which we were taking in the Tachibana case; that he would report to the Ambassador; and that the Ambassador would report to the Japanese Government what I had said to him. He said that of course he could make no commitment with regard to the two questions which we had raised, in as much as they were judicial questions. I interrupted to state emphatically that the case of Tachibana was also a judicial question and that the repeated statements of Japanese diplomatic and consular officers to the effect that matters of the arrest of American citizens were judicial matters which must be allowed to run their usual course with attendant long imprisonment of Americans, infrequent provision for release on bail, and a practice of holding Americans under arrest practically incommunicado presented startling contrast to the treatment accorded Japanese arrested in this country. I said that, in view of this contrast and in [Page 274] view of the very special treatment which this Government was according Tachibana, it seemed only fair that the Japanese Government take definite steps to show reciprocal good-will. Mr. Wakasugi repeated that he appreciated very much the action which we were taking in reference to Tachibana and that he would report immediately to the Ambassador.