Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The Far East, Volume VI

761.94114/12–2447

The Acting Political Adviser in Japan (Sebald) to the Secretary of State

secret
No. 1475

Tokyo, December 24, 1947.

Sir: I have the honor to refer to this Mission’s despatch 1263 of October 4, 1947,¹¹ with which were transmitted the corrected verbatim minutes of the 44th meeting of the Allied Council for Japan, at which the subject of delays in Japanese repatriation from Soviet territory was discussed.

On December 2, 1947, General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers was notified by Major General Kislenko, Acting Member from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Allied Council for Japan, that repatriation of Japanese war prisoners from the Port of Nahodka and of Japanese citizens from the Port of Maoka would be temporarily suspended because of climatic and icing conditions from December 1, 1947, until the opening of navigation in April 1948. A copy of this letter is attached hereto as enclosure 1.¹² With the approval of the Chief of Staff, a letter was sent to Major General Kislenko on December 10, 1947 requesting that the decision to suspend repatriation be reconsidered in view of the fact that 21,723 repatriates had been returned to Japan from the ports in question last winter during the period December 1, 1946 to January 3, 1947. A copy is attached as enclosure 2. An offer was made in this communication to despatch ice breakers with repatriation vessels to overcome icing conditions in the ports, and a previous offer of August 30 to send repatriation vessels to any other port designated by Soviet authorities was reiterated.

The concern of the Japanese Foreign Office in this matter was indicated in an item in the Jiji Press Home News Service of December 16, a copy of which is attached as enclosure 3, in which it was stated that sources close to the Foreign Office declare that the holding up of repatriation until April 1 is a blow to the Japanese who are eagerly awaiting the return of fathers, sons, relatives and friends before winter. This article followed press releases of General Headquarters dated December 13 and 16, 1947, copies of which are attached as enclosures 4 and 5. In the former it was stated that 496,349 Japanese remained to be repatriated from Siberia, 201,968 from Karafuto and the Kurile Islands, and 3000 from Dairen.^* In the latter release it was disclosed that, in accordance with the Soviet decision to cease repatriation until April 1, the Japanese Government had been directed on December 16 to suspend operations at the Maizuru and Hakodate reception centers. The Japanese communist newspaper Akahata on December 9, 1947, before issuance of these press releases, printed an interview with a repatriate from Siberia who allegedly stated that lack of smooth progress in the repatriation program was due to the negligence of the Japanese Government and that “rumors” that the Soviet Union had no intention of returning Japanese from its territories were “absurd propaganda”. A copy of this article is forwarded as enclosure 6. This article recalls what the Chairman said at the 44th Meeting of the Allied Council concerning propaganda organs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which had “attempted to place direct blame for the small rate of repatriation from the Soviet-controlled areas upon the Occupation authorities”.

The dissemination given the type of Soviet propaganda printed in the Akahata is indicated by an interview with a repatriate from the Maoka Repatriation Center, which is reported in a military letter from a branch office of G–2, IX Corps, to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G–2, IX Corps, at Sendai, a copy of which is forwarded herewith as enclosure 7.

According to this document, repatriates in Maoka were told by a Soviet lieutenant colonel that the Japanese Government and the United States Occupation authorities are causing Russians great hardships by not sending ships on schedule and thereby upsetting the carefully planned repatriation program. It was also alleged that prisoners of war from Okha were told during their internment that the Japanese Government together with the Occupation authorities had requested that repatriation be stopped due to acute shortage of food and housing in Japan.

Although the repatriation agreement of December 19, 1946, between SCAP and General Derevyanko stipulated that shipping would be furnished within fourteen days of the receipt of a Soviet request therefor, recent Soviet practice has been to request shipping to arrive at Soviet ports on as little as four or five days notice. At no time has SCAP failed to comply with the stipulated fourteen-day period, and on only one occasion did a vessel dispatched by SCAP fail to arrive on the exact date requested. Soviet authorities had asked on October 31 that a vessel be available at Maoka on November 5. This ship was dispatched in such time as to arrive in Maoka on November 8.

The Chairman of the Allied Council for Japan stated at the forty-fourth meeting^† that General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers had, since May 1947, consistently provided shipping space ten per cent in excess of requests made by the Soviet authorities. The most recent report of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, concerning the status of Japanese repatriation, dated December 19, 1946, contains a recapitulation of repatriation from Soviet and Soviet-controlled areas for the first year of the program. It is forwarded herewith as enclosure No. 8. According to this report the excess of shipping space furnished from December 3, 1946, through December 4, 1947 averages thirteen percent. The total number of shipping spaces provided during the year which Soviet authorities failed to fill is 69,527.

It should be pointed out that the repatriation agreement of December 19, 1946, specified Genzan and Kanko in North Korea and Dairen, in addition to Nahodka and Maoka, as ports for repatriation from Soviet-controlled areas. Genzan and Kanko are free of all but light surface ice the year round, and the harbor of Dairen is essentially free of ice although temperatures below freezing are common.^‡ The Soviet authorities would appear to have unilaterally limited repatriation from Siberia, Karafuto and the Kuriles to the ports of Maoka and Nahodka although, if a positive desire existed on their part to discharge their obligation in the shortest possible time, no reason is apparent why repatriates from Siberia, in any case, could not be routed through the North Korean ports.^§ Maoka and Nahodka are generally icebound during the first months of the year.^║ Information now available in General Headquarters^¶ indicates the strong likelihood that these ports were actually frozen over during the first part of December this year, as Major General Kislenko’s letter of December 2 appears to state.

On the other hand, the Soviet representative at a conference on repatriation held in General Headquarters on January 14, 1947, stated his reason for declining the proffered loan of icebreakers, then made for the first time orally, to be the difficulties of overland transportation in winter. In a staff study made by G–3 Section of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, preparatory to answering Major General Kislenko’s letter of December 2, 1947 the possible validity of climatic conditions as the reason for the Soviets’ early suspension of repatriation from Maoka and Nahodka is recognized. However, the possibility is asserted that barracks and camps in and around the ports could have been filled to capacity during the autumn months, and that a certain flow of repatriates could have been maintained during December and early January as was done last winter. If the difficulty does lie in overland transportation, it might indeed be impossible to reroute repatriates from Siberia through the North Korean ports, although the continuance for two consecutive winters of the same conditions could hardly be classified as “unforseen circumstances” under paragraph 4, Section II, of the repatriation agreement, cited by Major General Kislenko in his letter.

Respectfully yours,

W. J. Sebald

11. Not printed.
12. Enclosures to this despatch not printed.
13. The most recent status of Repatriation Report, General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, dated December 19, 1947, gives revised estimates for Siberia, Karafuto and the Kuriles: 494,226 for the former and 198,292 for the latter two areas. [Footnote in the original.]
14. Minutes, page 5, last line. [Footnote in the original.]
15. Joint Army-Navy Intelligence Studies (Janis):—No. 74 for Dairen and No. 75 for Kanko and Genzan. [Footnote in the original.]
16. Except for an estimated 506 persons repatriation of Japanese from the North Korean area was completed with the last lift, November 6, 1947, from Kanko. In December 1946, January, March, July and November 1947, 27,296 Japanese were returned to Japan from Kanko and Genzan. The latter port was not used during 1947. The North Korean ports were originally intended to be used chiefly or only for repatriation of Japanese in North Korea. [Footnote in the original.]

17. According to United States Hydrographic Office publication No. 133, “Sailing Directions for Chosen and Siberia”, the port of Nahodka is frozen and closed to shipping several months of the year. Number 79 of the Janis series states the following regarding Maoka:

    “The harbor is reported to be frozen over from December to mid-March, but the ice is never more than one foot thick. Occasionally drift ice from the north combine’s with the field ice to completely block the port but never for more than a day or two.” [Footnote in the original.]

18. The Weather Station of the 15–9th Army Air Forces at Haneda Airfield, Tokyo, which is the central clearing house of the Far East Command for weather information, has orally reported that there is a strong supposition, on the basis of available information, that Maoka and Nahodka harbors were frozen during the first half of December 1947 and that Hokkaido and Karafuto (Saghalin) were colder than during the same period in 1946. [Footnote in the original.]