Tokyo Post Files: 320 Japan–U.S.
The Deputy Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs (McClurkin) to the United States Political Adviser to SCAP (Sebald)
Dear Bill: The Mutual Security Program for Fiscal Year 1953 is not expected to include either an economic or a military assistance program for Japan. The thinking in the Department of Defense has been that any military assistance for Japan for FY 1953 would be taken care of out of general Department of Defense budget. This position has accorded with our own thinking; many of our Allies—in particular the British, the French and the Australians—have expressed considerable reluctance to see Japan too rapidly rearmed. Consequently we feel that it would be highly undesirable to incorporate a [Page 1408] military assistance program for Japan in any public document before the effective date of the Peace Treaty.
In spite of the fact that there is therefore no real necessity for doing so, we felt that it was desirable, for the sake of giving a complete picture of the situation in the Far East, to include in the genera] Mutual Security Program a statement on Japan prepared in the same form as the statements on the other countries in the area.
I am attaching a copy of this paper, and of the paper on Korea,1 so that you will know what we have said. These papers will go through many metamorphoses before they reach final form. Consequently, if you have any suggestions for corrections, additions or deletions, we shall be glad to have them.
Sincerely yours,
- Neither printed.↩