Evening star., 1945-10-01
Americans Seek
Foreign Funds
Seized by Japan
Search Is Begun After
Closing Of n Bonks
By Gen. Macarthur
By the Associated Press.

4 4
| By Gen. Macarthur
] By the Associssed Press.
TOKYO, Oct. l.--American oc-
cupation authorities today be-
gan a search for untold millions
of dollars in gold, silver and cur
rency which Japan was believed
to have taken from the lands 1t
overran.
The search paralleled other in
vestigations into imperialistic war
financing, made possible through
Gen. MacArthur's seizure today OF
81 Government-controlled financial
institutions in Tokyo and six other
large cities, and the ousting of
their officials.
The Bank of Japan, the nations
largest financial institution. one
fourth of which was owned by the
japanese imperial household, was
closed by an order Of the Allied
command
Due to Reopen Tomorrow.
It will open tomorrow, Col. r. p.
Kramer, Gen. MacArthur's eco
nomic and scientific chief, said. IF
the japanese provide full co-opera-
ton" in locating the assets of the
seized institutions which had office
space in the Bank of Japan Build
ing.
Bank officers pleaded last night
that they had had insufficient time
to produce the requested assets and
records. They had received in
structions from the Finance Min
istry earlier, however, to have the
requested material on hand by last
night.
American troops on guard around
the bank assured depositors, many
of them women sobbing in fear that
they might lose their life savings,
that their funds were safe.
Two other banks closed by Gen.
MacArthur-the Yokohama Species
Bank and the Hypotec-re-opened
today with Allied permission after
check of their records.
Allied headquarters said no trace
was found in the three institutions
of hard money" removed from the
Philippines and the Netherlands
Indies during the Japanese occu-
patton
Some gold and gold stocks ear
marked for Siam and Indo-C China,
and some gold set aside for the Fed
eral Reserve Bank of North China
were reported found in the Bank of
Japan.
The hunt for the missing funds
that once belonged to the Philip
pines. China and other nations be-
gan with conference of Col
Kramer and Viscount Keizo Shibu-
sawa, governor of the Bank of
Japan, and other leading Japanese
financial figures.
Deny Holding Foreign Money.
The japanese denied the Bank of
Japan held any foreign money, de-
MED any knowledge of a possible
hiding place and maintained they
had no control over financial activ-
tiles of field military commanders.
The militarists, the bankers said,
had the power either to sell their
looted assets and place the money
in. special disbursement fund of
the finance ministry or keep the
assets for themselves"
Shibusawa declared he knew
nothing of reported transfers of gold
and currency from the Philippines
to Japan.
The bankers gave Col. Kramer an
estimate of the gold reserves of the
Bank of Japan, which they said was
Japans total reserve except for
small amounts earmarked for ship
ment to Indo- China and Siam, but
the figure was not disclosed imme-
diately.
| Col. Kramer previously had an
nounced that the Finance Ministry
estimated Japan's gold reserve at
s125, ,000, 600.
The bankers denied knowledge of
full details on imperial household
funds or where the imperial gold
deposits might be located, but they
disclosed that the household owned
approximately 25 per cent interest
in the Bank Of Japan, and the jap
anese government owned a IS per
cent interest.
New Liaison Chief Named.
Meanwhile, the newspaper Asahi
reported that Kenji Kodama, for
mer head of the Central China De-
velopment Co., one of the firms
ordered dosed, had been appointed
new president of the central liaison
Office, the Japanese agency that re-
ceives and passes on to the proper