Council of Foreign Ministers Files: Lot M–88: CFM London Documents

Memorandum by the Soviet Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers

Allied Control Machinery in Japan

The Soviet Government consider that the situation that has now arisen in Japan urgently calls for the immediate establishment there of an Allied Control Council. So long as the purely military phase existed and the Japanese Army and Navy had not yet been disarmed, the concentration of all control functions in Japan, in the hands of the Allied Commander-in-Chief, was understandable and could be justified. Now, however, that the purely military phase has ended, new tasks confront the Allies in Japan, mainly of a political, economic and financial nature the ultimate purpose of which should be the destruction of Japanese militarism and the creation in Japan of such conditions as will obviate any possibility of new aggression on her part. The responsibility for, the achievement of this aim rests [Page 358]with the four Allied Powers and cannot be placed solely on the United States of America. The Soviet Government accordingly consider it necessary to submit for the consideration of the Council of Foreign Ministers the following proposals:

1.

An Allied Control Council shall be set up in Tokio consisting of representatives of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China under the chairmanship of the United States representative.

2.

The task of the Allied Control Council, which will be set up immediately, shall be to define and formulate the policy of the Allies towards Japan in political, military, economic, financial and other matters. All questions on which it may prove impossible to reach a decision on the spot shall be referred to Governments for settlement through such channels as they may choose.

3.

Measures to carry into effect the policy formulated by the Allied Control Council shall be taken by the Chairman of the Council through the executive agencies of the Control Council.

In the matter of military and economic disarmament, reparations and other problems calling for direct supervision on the part of the Four Powers, representatives of these Powers may be included on the above mentioned executive agencies.

4.

Garrison duties in Tokio should be carried out jointly by the armed forces of the Four Powers.

5.

Other questions connected with the organisation of Allied Control Machinery in Japan and the possible participation in such machinery of other Allied States which have played an active part in the war against Japan, e.g. in the shape of an Advisory Council, can be discussed later and the Soviet Delegation has no objection to these questions being discussed also at the present Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers.