I

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 5432

To amend the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act to extend and modify the

functions of the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group

to cover records of the Japanese Imperial Government, and for other

purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 10, 2000

Mrs. MALONEY of New York (for herself and Mr. LANTOS) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform

A BILL

To amend the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act to extend

and modify the functions of the Nazi War Criminal

Records Interagency Working Group to cover records

of the Japanese Imperial Government, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Nazi War Crimes and

5 Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:
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1 (1) In 1998, Congress adopted the Nazi War

2 Crimes Disclosure Act (Public Law 105–246) re3 quiring the executive branch to identify any still4 classified records in its custody relating to Nazi war

5 crimes, war criminals, persecution, and looted assets

6 and to declassify and release such records to the

7 American public. Under that Act, the President es8 tablished the Nazi War Criminal Records Inter9 agency Working Group (in this section referred to as

10 the ‘‘Interagency Group’’) to carry out the functions

11 required by that Act.

12 (2) In its first year, the Interagency Group

13 screened more than 600,000,000 pages of material

14 relating to Nazi war crimes and has declassified

15 1,500,000 pages of such material and opened them

16 to the public at the National Archives.

17 (3) While the Interagency Group has worked

18 diligently to screen materials and declassify millions

19 of pages of material, the limited staff and funding

20 available to the Interagency Group threaten its abil21 ity to complete the functions required by the Nazi

22 War Crimes Disclosure Act.

23 (4) Already, significant new information about

24 the Holocaust has been revealed in the more than

25 400,000 records of the Office of Strategic Services
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1 that were released by the Interagency Group at the

2 National Archives on June 26, 2000. However, fur3 ther such revelations depend on the availability of

4 adequate staff support and funding for the Inter5 agency Group.

6 (5) The remarkable progress made by the Inter7 agency Group has been achieved even though Con8 gress has not appropriated funds for the support of

9 the Interagency Group or for the activities carried

10 out by the various Federal agencies which hold

11 records subject to its functions. Without the re12 sources to review the materials being released, it will

13 be years before the significance of the contents of

14 such materials will be understood.

15 (6) The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act

16 charged the Interagency Group with reviewing all

17 records that pertain to World War II, under the di18 rection of, or in association with the Nazi govern19 ment of Germany, any government occupied by the

20 military of the Nazi government, and any govern21 ment that was an ally of the Nazi government,

22 which includes the Japanese Imperial Government.

23 (7) After the end of World War II, the United

24 States returned more than 18,000,000 pages of cap-
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1 tured Japanese records to the Japanese Government

2 at its request.

3 (8) In order to complete the Congressional di4 rectives of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, the

5 Interagency Group should review the materials that

6 were returned to Japan. Therefore, the full coopera7 tion of the Japanese Government in granting access

8 to the Interagency Group and assisting in the review

9 of all World War II records is desired to insure that

10 these historic records can be reviewed, released, or

11 otherwise made available to the public in a timely

12 and efficient manner.

13 (9) The Interagency Group has been working

14 diligently to fulfill its charge under the Nazi War

15 Crimes Disclosure Act, but the original three-year

16 authorization of the Interagency Group under that

17 Act does not allow for the completion of the momen18 tous tasks outlined in that Act, specifically the com19 pletion of the review of the records pertaining to the

20 Japanese Government.
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1 SEC. 3. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF AUTHORITY OF

2 NAZI WAR CRIMINAL RECORDS INTER3 AGENCY WORKING GROUP TO COVER JAPA4 NESE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS.

5 (a) AMENDMENT TO TITLE.—Section 1 of the Nazi

6 War Crimes Disclosure Act (Public Law 105–246; 112

7 Stat. 1859; 5 U.S.C. 552 note) is amended by striking

8 ‘‘Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act’’ and inserting ‘‘Nazi

9 War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Disclo10 sure Act’’.

11 (b) EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY.—Section 2(b)(1) of

12 such Act is amended by striking ‘‘3 years’’ and inserting

13 ‘‘5 years’’.

14 (c) MEMBERSHIP.—Section 2(b)(2) of such Act is

15 amended by striking ‘‘3 other persons’’ and inserting ‘‘4

16 other persons, who shall be members of the public and

17 of whom 3 shall be persons appointed to the Interagency

18 Group before the date of the enactment of the Nazi War

19 Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure

20 Act’’.

21 (d) FUNCTIONS REGARDING JAPANESE IMPERIAL

22 GOVERNMENT RECORDS.—

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 2(c)(1) of such Act

24 is amended by inserting ‘‘and all classified Japanese

25 Imperial Government records of the United States’’

26 after ‘‘of the United States’’.
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1 (2) DEFINITION OF JAPANESE IMPERIAL GOV2 ERNMENT RECORDS.—Section 3 of such Act is

3 amended—

4 (A) by redesignating subsections (b) and

5 (c) as subsections (c) and (d), respectively; and

6 (B) by inserting after subsection (a) the

7 following new subsection (b):

8 ‘‘(b) JAPANESE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT

9 RECORDS.—For purposes of this Act, the term ‘Japanese

10 Imperial Government records’ means classified records or

11 portions of records that pertain to any person with respect

12 to whom the United States Government, in its sole discre13 tion, has grounds to believe ordered, incited, assisted, or

14 otherwise participated in the persecution of any person be15 cause of race, gender, religion, national origin, or political

16 opinion, during the period beginning September 18, 1931,

17 and ending on September 2, 1945, under the direction of,

18 or in association with—

19 ‘‘(1) the Japanese Imperial Army;

20 ‘‘(2) the Japanese Imperial Government;

21 ‘‘(3) any government in any area occupied by

22 the military forces of the Japanese Imperial Army;

23 ‘‘(4) any government established with the as24 sistance or cooperation of the Japanese Imperial

25 Army or Japanese Imperial Government; or
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1 ‘‘(5) any government which was an ally of the

2 Japanese Imperial Government.’’.

3 (3) APPLICATION OF EXEMPTIONS.—Paragraph

4 (3)(A) of section 3(c) of such Act, as redesignated

5 by paragraph (2)(A) of this section, is amended to

6 read as follows:

7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In applying the ex8 emptions provided in subparagraphs (B)

9 through (J) of paragraph (2), there shall be a

10 presumption that the public interest will be

11 served by disclosure and release of the Nazi war

12 criminal records or Japanese Imperial Govern13 ment records, as the case may be. The exemp14 tion may be asserted only when the head of the

15 agency that maintains the records determines

16 that disclosure and release would be harmful to

17 a specific interest identified in the exemption.

18 An agency head who makes such a determina19 tion shall promptly report such determination

20 to the committees of Congress with appropriate

21 jurisdiction, including the Committee on the Ju22 diciary and the Select Committee on Intel23 ligence of the Senate and the Committee on

24 Government Reform and Oversight and the

25 Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of
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1 the House of Representatives. The exemptions

2 set forth in paragraph (2) shall constitute the

3 only authority pursuant to which an agency

4 head may exempt records otherwise subject to

5 release under paragraph (1).’’.

6 (4) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Such Act is

7 further amended as follows:

8 (A) In section 2(a)—

9 (i) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of

10 paragraph (3);

11 (ii) by striking paragraph (4); and

12 (iii) by adding after paragraph (3) the

13 following new paragraphs:

14 ‘‘(4) ‘Japanese Imperial Government records’

15 has the meaning given such term under section 3(b)

16 of this Act; and

17 ‘‘(5) ‘record’ means a Nazi war criminal record

18 or a Japanese Imperial Government record.’’.

19 (B) In section 3(c)(1), as redesignated by

20 paragraph (2)(A) of this subsection, by insert21 ing ‘‘and Japanese Imperial Government

22 records’’ after ‘‘Nazi war criminal records’’.

23 (C) In section 4(d), as so redesignated, by

24 inserting ‘‘or Japanese Imperial Government

25 record’’ after ‘‘Nazi war criminal record’’.
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1 (D) In section 4, by inserting ‘‘or Japanese

2 Imperial Government record’’ after ‘‘Nazi war

3 criminal record’’ each place it appears.

4 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section

5 2(d) of such Act is amended to read as follows:

6 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

7 are authorized to be appropriated for the Interagency

8 Group to carry out this section, $5,000,000 for each of

9 fiscal years 2001, 2002 and 2003.’’.

10 (f) RECORDS INCLUDED.—Section 3(a)(2)(A) of such

11 Act is amended by striking ‘‘beginning on March 23,

12 1933, and ending on May 8, 1945’’ and inserting ‘‘begin13 ning on January 1, 1931, and ending on September 2,

14 1945’’.

15 (g) MODIFICATION OF NAME OF INTERAGENCY

16 GROUP.—Such Act is amended by striking ‘‘Nazi War

17 Criminal Records Interagency Working Group’’ each place

18 it appears and inserting ‘‘Nazi War Crimes and Japanese

19 Imperial Government Records Interagency Working

20 Group’’.

21 (h) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—(1) The section head22 ing of section 2 of such Act is amended to read as follows:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF NAZI WAR CRIMES AND JAPA2 NESE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS

3 INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP.’’.

4 (2) The section heading of section 3 of such Act is

5 amended to read as follows:

6 ‘‘SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT OF DISCLOSURE OF NAZI WAR

7 CRIMINAL RECORDS AND JAPANESE IMPE8 RIAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS.’’.

9 (3) The section heading of section 4 of such Act is

10 amended to read as follows:

11 ‘‘SEC. 4. EXPEDITED PROCESSING OF FOIA REQUESTS FOR

12 NAZI WAR CRIMINAL RECORDS AND JAPA13 NESE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS.’’.

14 SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF NAZI WAR CRIMES AND

15 JAPANESE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT INTER16 AGENCY WORKING GROUP.

17 (a) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 1 year after

18 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Nazi War

19 Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Interagency

20 Working Group shall submit to Congress, including the

21 committees of Congress specified in subsection (b), a re22 port on the activities of the Interagency Group under the

23 Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Dis24 closure Act, as amended by section 3 of this Act, during

25 the one-year period ending on the date of the report. The

26 report shall describe the activities of the Interagency
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1 Group and applicable Federal agencies under section 2(c)

2 of that Act, as so amended, and include a description of

3 the records processed by the Interagency Group under

4 that Act (including the disposition of such records).

5 (b) COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS.—The committees of

6 Congress specified in this subsection are as follows:

7 (1) The Committee on the Judiciary and the

8 Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.

9 (2) The Committee on the Judiciary, the Com10 mittee on Government Reform and Oversight, and

11 the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of

12 the House of Representatives.

13 SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING COOPERATION

14 OF FOREIGN NATIONS.

15 It is the sense of Congress that foreign nations, and

16 in particular Japan, should make every effort possible to

17 make its records available to and cooperate with the Nazi

18 War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records

19 Interagency Working Group established by section 2 of the

20 Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Dis21 closure Act, as amended by section 3 of this Act, in car22 rying out the duties of the Interagency Group under such

23 Act, as so amended.

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