Tokyo, August 20, 1957

No.44
To : His Excellency
The President
From : Tai Ha Yiu
Subject: Japanese Proposals at 16th Preliminary Session
The 16th preliminary session opened this morning at the Kayukaikan. I agreed to the meeting with Itagaki and Miyake after receving their telephone call the previous evening.
The gist of the talk is as follows:
Itagaki: "It is utterly impossible for Japan to accept the Korean PROPOSAL ON THE U.S. Memorandum. I had no chance with the authorities concerned; they were so opposed. However, since the problem has to be settled one way or the other, we hope the Korean side will give the matter durther consideration.
I am going to place before you a proposal which might be acceptable to the Korean side. As a result of consultations with vice foreign minister Ohno, we have decided to make one or two revisions in the draft Agreed Minutes. That is, change the order of contents leaving the wordings intact with respect to article 4 of the Agreed Minutes. (Please see attached) Reversing the order of contents would make the Korean stand stronger, for as I have told you, the Korean amendment proposal will not be accepted. Although the terms are the same, if experts were to study them, they would notice the change."
Itagaki took a long time to explain the advantages of the Korean side were the contents to be reversed.
Yin: "What you proposed seems like a bit of nonsense to me. It is nothing more than shifting plates from your left to your right. It gives no advantages to the Korean side. Why can't you just make yourself plain and clear instead of making vague proposals.
Yon speak of opposition from the authorities concerned, but as I know it, the Japanese government went ahead with their own plans in disregard of the opposition and settled the Philippine and Burmese reparations problems. What annoys me is why you take such an attitude to our property claims."
Itagaki: "I must contradict that statement. The Philippine and Burmese reparations problems were not as complicated as the Korean claims because the two countries presented the amount of their claims and we had something to work on, while the Korean side did not such thing except to demand guarantees that its property claims will not be affected by the U.S. Memorandum and so on."
Yiu: "The nature of our claims is quite different from your reparations problem with the other countries."
Itagaki: "I have to refer to the Kim-Nakagawa talks again. They failed to reach any agreement and instead resulted in the government getting into trouble with the socialists and the families of the fishermen detained in Korea.
I have another proposal to make to you. The Korean side is anxious to obtain written commitments from the Japanese side on the various issues prior to resuming the overall talks. In his statement issued the other day, Foreign Sinister Cho made similar references. Such being the case, I see no hope of our fishermen being released from Pusan unless the property claims and other problems are settled. Therefore, I would like to propose that we open the overall talks parallel with the preliminary meetings because there will be no settlement of the detainee issue without the settlement of the other problems.
The Korean side refuses to present its claims amount. The Japanese side has stated it will discuss the Korean claims with sincerity. But that too failed to satisfy you. The best way, therefore, would be to open the formal conference at which time will be decided whether these problems will be settled or not. If we fail to reach agreement on any one of the problems, we will have to accept that as breaking up the talks.
As a prerequisite to resuming the formal conference, the Korean side requested the withdrawal of the Kubota statement and the renunciation of the property claims. The request was accepted; therefore, the formal talks should be resumed.
Yiu: "The preliminary talks started quite some time ago, but as yet we failed to come to any agreement. Under such a circumstance, opening of the formal talks would cause further confusion and difficulties. We should try to come to agreement on each of our problems at this time instead of resuming the conference and trying to tackle them all at once.
I would like to know what prompted you to state that failure to settle the overall pending problems will result in further detention of Japanese fishermen in Korea. You forget that we are as anxious as you are to have our people released from the Omura camp. You seem to also forget that you have such people in detention."
Itagaki: "I did not mean it that way. As an official of my government it is only natural for me to think of our people, while it is natural that you as the Korean representative in Japan should think of your people."
Yiu: "Your proposals are not acceptable to the Korean side."
Itagaki: "The Japanese side has made two proposals. I want you to relay them to your government."
On returning to the office, I held a staff meeting to discuss my talk with the Japs. It was the unanimous opinion that the Jap proposal concerning the reversing of the order of contents with respect to article 4 of the draft agreed minutes was not to be considered and that I had made an appropriate answer.
As to opening the formal talks parallel with the preliminary sessions, we should study the matter more closely for we are rather suspicious of the purpose behind the Jap proposal.
In the afternoon, I contacted the Jap officials again and sent Counselor Choi together with first secretary Chin to Miyake who repeated the same things that Itagaki had said to me at our morning session. (Gist of talk attached)
The Japs made the above two proposals at today's meeting which I hope will be thoroughly studied, although they are not even worth any consideration, and instructions issued accordingly.