# Memorandum of draft treaty of peace with Japan, territorial clauses, by Boggs Dec 8 , 1949

​STANDARD FORM NO. 64
Office Memorandum • UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
SECRET
| TO | : | FE - Mr. Hamilton NA - Mr. Fearey | DATE | : | December 8, 1949 |
| FROM | : | OIR/GE - Mr. Boggs |
| SUBJECT | : | Draft treaty of peace with Japan, territorial clauses |
As requested, I have studied despatch No. 806 from the U.S Political Adviser for Japan, dated Tokyo, November 19, 1949, in relation to the territorial provisions of the draft treaty of peace with Japan dated November 2, 1949.
Below I am providing a revision of Article 3, "in positive terms" as proposed by Mr. Sebald, but without completely eliminating reference to latitude and longitude. The islands are grouped, principally by the seas in which they are located, and the groups are separated by semicolons and by extra spacing for convenient reference in this draft form.
I have included the southernmost Kuril Islands, including Shikotan and the Habomai group. These can be omitted if desired. It is problematical whether to include them. Mr. Sebald intimates (p. 3, par. 3) that the Soviet Union may be prepared to concede the southern Kurils to Japan and to make fishing concessions. Possibly the Soviet Union may be more inclined to make such concessions if they are not suggested in the American draft of the treaty, thereby expecting greater credit from Japan if the concessions are offered independently by the Soviet Union. It may remain for the Department to balance the possible refusal of the Japanese to concede the Kurils if included in the United States treaty draft against the advantage Russia might obtain through proposing independently that she will concede them to Japan.
The suggested revision of Article 3 follows:
CHAPTER II
TERRITORIAL CLAUSES
Article 3
The territory of Japan shall comprise the four principal Japanese home islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido and all adjacent minor islands, including the islands of the Inland Sea (Seto Naikai); Tsushima, Takeshima (Liancourt Rocks), Oki Retto, Sado, Okujiri, Rebun. Riishiri and all other islands in the Japan Sea (Nippon Kai) within a line connecting the farther shores of Tsushima, Takeshima and Rebun; the Goto archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands north of 29° N. latitude, and all other islands of the East China Sea east of longitude 127° east of Greenwich and north of 29° N. latitude; the Izu Islands southward to and including Sofu Gan (Lot's Wife) and all other islands of the Philippine Sea nearer to the home islands than the islands named; and the southern Kuril Islands (Chishima) northeastward to and including Etorofu and including Shikotan and the Habomai group. Habomai group and Shokotan. ^ All of the islands identified above, with a three-mile belt of territorial waters, shall belong to Japan.
​I have also attempted to telescope into one article, along the lines suggested by Mr. Sebald, all of what was embodied in Articles 4 to 12 inclusive of the November 2 draft. This is given below as Article 4. Chapter II, Territorial Clauses, would thus contain only Articles 3 and 4.
Article 4
Check with Briggs & (illegible text) Japan hereby [ ^cedes and] ^ renounces all territory, all territorial claims behalf itself nation ^ and all mandate, ^ and lease ^ concession, or settlement ^ rights, titles and claims outside the territorial area described in Article 3, and accepts the disposition of these territories that has been made or that may be made by the parties concerned, or by the United Nations in accordance with the trusteeship provisions of Articles 77, 79, 83 ^ and 85 of the Charter of the United Nations.
(illegible text) This blanket renunciation of territory follows, at least in part, a pattern set in several treaties, including those noted below. In the treaty of peace with Turkey concluded at Lausanne, Switzerland, July 24, 1923, Turkey renounced (Article 16) all other territories, "the future of these territories and islands being settled or to be settled by the parties concerned." In Article 15, however, Turkey renounced in favor of Italy the Dodecanese Islands and Castellorizzo.
In the treaty of peace with Italy signed in Paris February 10, 1947, Article 23 provides, with reference to Italian colonies: "The final disposition of these possessions shall be determined jointly by the Governments of the Soviet Union, of the United Kingdom, of the United States of America, and of France, within one year from the coming into force of the treaty..."
As you are aware, it is customary to provide in treaties of ​peace, for the cession of territory to specific countries. This was done, for example, in the 1919-1920 peace treaties by means of "political clauses", country by country. It is presumably desirable to reach agreement on the disposition of Formosa, the southern Ryukyu Islands, and all the other islands and claims that are to be renounced by Japan, before the treaty of peace is signed by Japan.
SECRET
OIR/GE:SWBoggs:mlg
    12-8-49
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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