Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI, Part 1

Lot 54D423

The British Embassy to the Department of State ¹

Aide-Mémoire

His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom have found the informal conversations on the Japanese Peace Treaty, which have been proceeding between their representatives and Mr. John Foster Dulles since last September, of great value. They consider, however, that now that this full but informal exchange of views has taken place they should inform the Government of the United States officially of their present attitude toward the various aspects of the Japanese Peace Treaty.

2. His Majesty’s Government consider that the major object which a peace treaty with Japan should seek to achieve is the establishment of a peace-loving Japan with a settled government and a viable economy.

3. His Majesty’s Government infer that while it has as yet taken no final decision, the Government of the United States wishes, in so far as this is possible, to negotiate the Japanese Peace Treaty as a multilateral instrument through the diplomatic channel with those states which are willing to negotiate as principal parties on a basis to be agreed. In this connexion His Majesty’s Government wish to enquire whether the United States Government are in a position to say whether they intend, in due course, to summon a peace conference which all the 49 states at war with Japan will be invited to attend. Further, it would be of great assistance to know whether in the view of the United States Government such a conference should be charged with the drafting of the final peace treaty or whether it should be called to discuss a draft treaty already prepared by the principal parties who, when the conference had concluded its deliberations, would then draft and sign the final treaty.

4. With regard to the substantive clauses of the Peace Treaty, the views of His Majesty’s Government are set out in the paragraphs which follow. His Majesty’s Government wish however to reserve their right to raise at a later stage the question of the disposal of German assets in Japan and certain points of detail connected with the economic financial and property clauses of the Treaty.

Territory.

5. In accordance with the Potsdam Proclamation of the 26th July, 1945, paragraph 8, His Majesty’s Government consider that the sovereignty of Japan should be confined to the four main Japanese islands and to a number of adjacent minor islands to be defined in the Peace Treaty. In addition to a general renunciation by Japan of all claims to and rights in all the territories of which she is to be deprived, the following should be recorded in the Treaty:

(i) Japan should recognise the independence of Korea.

(ii) The Ryukyu and Bonin Islands should be placed under a United States trusteeship.

(iii) As provided in the Livadia Agreement signed on the 11th February, 1945,² South Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands should be ceded by Japan to the U.S.S.R.

(iv) Japan should renounce all special rights and interests in China.

(v) Japan should renounce all political and territorial claims past, present and future in the Antarctic Continent.

(vi) Japan should specifically renounce all her rights and claims in respect of her pre-war mandated territories.

6. Disposal of Formosa. His Majesty’s Government’s views on the wording of a clause on Formosa will be the subject of a subsequent communication at an early date.

Political Provisions.

7. (i) The Japanese Government should undertake to prevent the resurgence of undesirable political societies in Japanese territory after the Peace Treaty has come into force. These would require suitable definition in the Treaty.

(ii) In the preamble to the Treaty a reference to the responsibility of the Japanese militarist régime for having provoked a state of war in terms similar to those used in the Italian Peace Treaty should be included.

(iii) An obligation should be laid upon the Japanese Government to ensure that, subject to normal remissions for good conduct, war criminals in Japan sentenced to terms of imprisonment before the Peace Treaty takes effect should serve the sentences imposed upon them by duly constituted War Crimes Courts.

(iv) It is undesirable that the Japanese Government should be required by the Peace Treaty to maintain (indefinitely or for a period of years) legislation enacted by the Japanese Diet in a democratic manner since the beginning of the occupation. Special ordinances promulgated by the Japanese Government in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers should be examined to see whether note should be taken of them in the Peace Treaty.

(v) It would be undesirable for the Peace Treaty to require Japan to apply for membership of the United Nations or to bind any of the Allied or Associated Powers signatory to the Treaty to support her application if it were made. However, His Majesty’s Government at the present time see no reason on general grounds to oppose an application by Japan for membership of the United Nations once she regains her freedom.

(vi) Japan should be required in the Peace Treaty to renounce her rights under the Congo Basin Treaties,³ under Article 16 of the Treaty of Lausanne signed on the 24th July 1923,⁴ and under the Straits Agreement of Montreux signed on the 20th July 1936.⁵

(vii) Japan should also be required to withdraw from the Bank for International Settlements within six months from the date when the Peace Treaty takes effect.

(viii) Japan should renounce all special rights of the Japanese state in respect of the mandate system.

(ix) Japan should be required to undertake to accept arrangements which may be made or have been made for the liquidation of any international body of which she was at any time a member.

(x) Japan should undertake to recognise the full force and effect of the treaties of peace and related arrangements already signed and to be signed, between the Allied and Associated Powers and Italy, Bulgaria, Roumania, Hungary, Finland, Thailand, Germany and Austria.

Security.

8. His Majesty’s Government consider that Japan should be permitted a reasonable scale of rearmament to carry out her obligations for internal security and defence.

Reparations.

9. No further reparations should be exacted from Japanese industrial assets. It is considered however that the stocks of Japanese (monetary) gold under the control of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan should be made available as reparations. His Majesty’s Government wish to take this opportunity of stating their view that in no circumstances should these stocks of gold be returned to Japan since they consider that the Allied and Associated Governments should not be asked to sacrifice the small and wholly inadequate amount of reparations which they might receive in this manner in order to give to Japan an appreciably better start as a free country than the victims of her aggression in the second world war.

10. With certain exceptions Japan’s overseas assets (both official and private) should not be returned to Japan or to their Japanese owners. Japanese assets in the territories of the Allied and Associated Powers should be at the disposal of the Governments of those countries.

11. Japanese assets in neutral and ex-enemy countries and in Germany and Austria which in most cases are under the joint control of the representatives in those countries of China, the U.S.S.R., the United States, and the United Kingdom on behalf of the States members of the Far Eastern Commission should not be returned to Japan or to Japanese nationals.

General Economic Clauses.

Goods

12. In the Foreign Office Note of 22nd February⁶ the United States Ambassador in London has already been informed of His Majesty’s Government’s decision that they must retain their freedom to protect British industries against Japanese competition should the necessity arise. Should it be proposed however that the Peace Treaty should include a provision (on the lines of Article 82 of the Italian Peace Treaty) under which Japan would grant national and most favoured nation treatment in respect of goods to countries which in fact granted similar treatment in like matters to Japan, His Majesty’s Government would be prepared to accept it. His Majesty’s Government’s acceptance would, however, be upon condition that the provision should be so drafted that each territory which is a separate entity for customs purposes is regarded as a separate country, so that the United Kingdom or any other territory would not lose the benefit of the provision because (say) Jamaica did not give national and most favoured nation treatment to Japan, and vice versa.

Establishment. (Treatment of foreign nationals and companies.)

13. Pending the conclusion of Establishment treaties between Governments of signatory States and Japan, foreign nationals and companies in Japan should in all respects receive national and most favoured nation treatment, subject if necessary to reciprocity. Any undertaking that national and most favored nation treatment by Japan would be subject to reciprocity should however be so drafted that each territory (such as a colony or protected state) should count as a separate country and companies incorporated in that territory or individuals belonging to it are regarded as if they were nationals of a separate country.

Shipping and Civil Aviation.

14. It is considered that Japan’s inflated ship building capacity in excess of an agreed tonnage should be destroyed. Japan’s present ship building capacity is in excess of her normal peace time needs as it was built up for the purpose of constructing and servicing an inflated war-time fleet. The shearing away of her surplus capacity is therefore justifiable on economic grounds.

15. Japan, pending the negotiation of suitable agreements, should grant in the Peace Treaty national and most favoured nation treatment to the shipping of signatory States subject, if necessary, to reciprocity. Any undertaking that national and most favoured nation treatment by Japan would be subject to reciprocity should be on the same footing with respect to the United Kingdom and its colonial and overseas dependent territories as is set out in paragraph 12 above.

16. Pending the conclusion of civil air transport agreements with other signatory States Japan should grant to the international air lines of such States the same or not less favourable air traffic rights and privileges as they enjoyed immediately before the Peace Treaty came into effect. Once Japan herself begins to operate international airlines she should, if no agreements have by then been signed, grant national and most favoured nation treatment to the international air lines of signatory States subject if necessary to reciprocity. Any undertaking that national and most favoured nation treatment by Japan would be subject to reciprocity should be on the same footing with respect to the United Kingdom and its overseas colonial and dependent territories as is set out in paragraph 12 above.

Bilateral Treaties.

17. The Treaty should provide on the lines of Article 44 of the Italian Peace Treaty for the revival of non-political prewar bilateral treaties between Japan and the Allied and Associated Powers, on the initiative only of the Allied or Associated State concerned.

Far Eastern Fisheries Convention.

18. Japan should undertake in the Peace Treaty to enter into international discussions if called upon by any of the signatory States for the conclusion of a Fisheries Convention to regulate fishing and fishing grounds in Far Eastern waters. Pending the conclusion of such discussions Japan should undertake voluntarily to prohibit fishing by her nationals or Japanese registered ships in conserved fishing areas and the territorial waters of any of the signatory States.

Human Rights.

19. His Majesty’s Government are doubtful of the value of inserting in the Japanese Peace Treaty a Human Rights clause on the lines of Article 15 in the Italian Peace Treaty. As an alternative it is suggested that a suitable reference might be made in the preamble to the Peace Treaty to the desire of the signatories that Japan will of her own free will accept the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

International Treaties and Conventions.

20. Japan should undertake in the Peace Treaty to resume carrying out her obligations under

(a) The International Narcotics Conventions of 1912,⁷ 1925,⁸ and 1931⁹ and to accede to

(b) the 1946 Protocol amending the 1931 Narcotics Conventions¹⁰ and

(c) the Protocol on the Traffic in Synthetic Drugs signed in 1948.¹¹ Japan should also accede to

(d) the International Whaling Convention and Protocol 1946,¹²

(e) the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, 1948,¹³ and

(f) any others which further study may show to be necessary.

Claims and Debts.

21. The property of nationals of the Allied and Associated Powers in Japan should be restored or, if not restorable intact, full compensation on the basis of present replacement costs should be paid. Japan should likewise undertake to make good damage to property caused since the end of hostilities by the Occupation forces in Japan.

22. The Treaty should contain suitable provision for the preservation and settlement of claims arising from pre-war indebtedness on the part of the Japanese Government or Japanese nationals towards the Governments or nationals of the Allied and Associated Powers.

Renunciation of Claims by Japan.

23. Japan should be required in the Treaty to waive all claims of any description against the Allied and Associated powers on behalf of the Japanese Government or Japanese nationals, arising directly out of the war in the Far East or out of actions taken because of the existence of a state of war in Europe after the 1st September 1939, whether or not the Allied and Associated power was at that time at war with Japan. This provision should bar completely and finally all categories of claims enumerated in it which should be declared extinguished whoever might have been the parties in interest. This clause would also specifically be directed toward protecting the orders of prize courts, and such institutions as banks, forwarding agents and custodians of enemy property.

Industrial, Literary and Artistic Property; Contracts (including Contracts of Insurance and Re-Insurance) Prescription and Negotiable Instruments.

24. There should be suitable separate provision in respect of all these matters in an annex to the Peace Treaty.

Disputes.

25. (a) Claims disputes arising out of the provisions of the Peace Treaty should be settled by a special neutral tribunal to be set up with an appropriate membership.

(b) Other disputes arising out of the Treaty should be referred either to diplomatic settlement or to the International Court of Justice.

War Graves.

26. It may be desirable to include in the Peace Treaty a clause on the lines of Articles 225 and 226 of the Treaty of Versailles in respect of war graves in Japan.

[Washington, undated.]

1. A handwritten marginal note reads: “March 12th 1951 Handed J[ohn] F[oster] D[ulles] by HMG Chargé d’Affaires.”
2. For text of the Agreement Regarding Japan signed (in the Livadia Palace) at Yalta by the heads of government of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, see Department of State Executive Agreement Series (EAS) No. 498, or 59 Stat. (pt. 2) 1823.
3. For the Convention signed at St.-Germain-en-Laye September 10, 1919, see Department of State Treaty Series (TS) No. 877, or 49 Stat. (pt. 2) 3027.
4. For text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xxviii, p. 115.
5. Text printed ibid., vol. clxxiii, p. 213.
6. Presumably that summarized in telegram 4619 from London, February 26, p. 896.
7. For text of the Convention and Final Protocols, signed at The Hague January 23, 1912, and July 9, 1913, respectively, see TS No. 612 or 38 Stat. (pt. 2) 1912.
8. For text of the Convention signed at Geneva February 11, 1925, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. li, p. 337.
9. For text of the Convention concluded at Geneva July 13, 1931, see TS No. 863 or 48 Stat. (pt. 2) 1543.
10. Signed at Lake Success December 11; text is printed as TIAS No. 1671 and in 62 Stat, (pt. 2) 1796.
11. Done at Paris November 19; for text, see TIAS No. 2308 or United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST), vol. 2 (pt. 2), p. 1629.
12. Signed at Washington December 2, 1946; for text, see TIAS No. 1849, or 62 Stat, (pt. 2) 1716.
13. Apparent reference to the Geneva Convention of 1949, signed August 12; text is printed as TIAS No. 3365 and in 6 UST (pt. 3) 3516.