740.00119 Control (Japan)/1–2648
The Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas (Saltzman) to the Chief of the Civil Affairs Division, Department of the Army (Noce)
Dear General Noce: SANACC 236/51 (U.S. Policy with Respect to Definition of Japanese Occupation Costs and the Priority to be Accorded their Repayment) has been introduced into the Far Eastern Commission as FEC 288. The United States representation in the Far Eastern Commission probably will require very full information on amounts and types of costs which the United States Government has borne in connection with the occupation of Japan, if other FEC countries are to be persuaded to approve our proposals.
[Page 948]It is my understanding that the Department of the Army has in its possession full reports on occupation costs for Japan incurred by the United States between the Japanese surrender and September 1947. Can the Department of the Army make this data available for use by the U.S. Delegation to the Far Eastern Commission? The fullest possible information is desired, in particular, regarding expenditures incurred for imports into Japan to prevent disease and unrest and to accomplish the purposes of the occupation and regarding expenditures for maintenance and repatriation of civilians and Japanese military personnel including expenses incurred in returning Japanese nationals to Japan, removal of foreign nationals from Japan, and transfer from points outside of Japan of persons displaced by Japanese aggression. FEC 288 proposes that repayment for these two types of expenditures should constitute first and second priority charges against certain specified Japanese assets. All of the FEC countries, including the United States, will be expected, shortly, to table estimates of such costs.
An FEC classification of “confidential” could be given to any data which the Department of the Army supplies for use in the Far Eastern Commission.
Sincerely yours,