Tokyo, December 20,1958

No.241
TO: Office of the President
FROM: Minister Tai Ha Yiu
Supplementing my cable report which 1 believe is already in Your Excellency's hands, the following is the contents of my conversation with Japanese political leaders, especially Mr. Ichiro Kohno, Liberal-Democratic Party Executive board Chairman at an informal dinner Saturday evening.
As I reported by cable, Vice President Bamooku Ohno, Foreign Affairs Chairman Funada and Ambassador Sawada and Ambassador Limb on our side were present besides Kohno and myself. Premier Kishi and Secretary-Veneral of the party Kawashima were scheduled to come together, however, some urgent business prevented it.
Needless to repeat, Mr. Kohno who did most of talking that day, is one of the most influential in the main current factions of the government party and was instrumental for the Russo-Japanese fishereis and normalization talks a few years ago, when he served as Agriculture and Forestry Minister tinder Prime Minister Hatoyama.
We devoted two hours and half to our conversation which concerned the Korea-Japan relations at length. First, Kohno wanted to be very frank with us and we agreed to be likewise.
To begin with, he said he, like the greater part of the Japanese top officials and leaders is not quite convinced of our real intention in the current overall talks. He expressed his dissatisfaction over our seizure of Japanese fishing boats which violated the Peace Line. He said he fully realised the necessity for us to conserve fishing resources in view of the highly-advanced Japanese fishing technic and capability, however, he did not believe it appropriate for us to one-sidedly draw a line and capture every fishing boats violating it. He thought there should be some other way to meet Korea's will in this regard.
Kohno, boatful of his own role in bringing about the Russo-Japanese normalization (he was regarded as Hatoyama's right arm that time and still is feared by most of his foe as toughest), said he is capable of doing what he says, once he sets his mind on it. He continued, if Korea stop antagonizing Japan, there are some elements in Japan who are trying to make friends with Korea. Although he is not regarded as especially friendly to Korea, he would be willing to do what he can for the better relations of the two countries. He said he wanted to have an evidence that Korea is making various insistences on the basis of the facts to enable his Government to study on them and, he emphasized that he will talk the top leaders of Japan, including Mr. Kishi, into settling the pending issues soon.
In reply, I told him that the Japanese are often speaking of our presenting the facts, however, if they are really sincere toward the settlement, it is quite simple to start with settlement of the vessels and art objects problems. As far as I knew, I continued, all the precedents indicate that those items are immediately returned after the war by every nation concerned. Nevertheless, Japan has not made any definite commitment on the matters, on various pretense. In this regard, Kohno said that the Japanese stand will be communicated to us through Vice Minister Yamada or Amb. Sawada shortly (I believe he meant the remarks made by Mr. Yamada last week on which I already reported). I said I am also known as a man of frankness and have been wanting to meet him, if such a meeting would help the solution of the pending issues.
Mr. Kohno then mentioned that if the things improve and the outlook is good, he might talk wither. Kishi and have either Kishi himself or Mr. Ohno visit Your Excellency at some appropriate time. In this regard, I replied that if the outlook is really good, I might arrange such a meeting in Seoul, however, as the things stand now, it would not be of so much help for the settlement, especially when such a simple issue like the art objects is not settled by Japan.
As I stated before, this meeting is the first of this kind and we did not touch upon any individual issues which I believe can very well be taken up later on.
Mr. Ohno then spoke. He said the Liberal-Democrats will elect a new president on January 17, next. As he did not believe the business-level talk would settle the issue, he suggested that a discussion be held at the top political level with a view to reaching some kind of agreement even before Jan.17. Although we did not go into details, it appears quite likely that the Japanese will now come up with some concrete attitude.