Bank officials tried to put an end to World War II By MIKIO HARUNA Kyodo News A Swedish international financial official, who later became the third managing director of the International Monetary Fund, engaged in secret maneuvers to help end World War II from neutral Switzerland at the request of his Japanese colleagues, declassified documents from Princeton University show. In July 1945, Per Jacobsson, a senior official at the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements, secretly approached Allen Dulles, an official in the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, to act as a mediator between Japan and the United States. Despite Dulles' reports on Japanese proposals to then U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson, negotiation efforts failed partly because Kojiro Kitamura and Kan Yoshimura, Jacobsson's BIS colleagues who requested the discussions, were deemed noninfluential with the Japanese government. Kitamura, then Japanese director of the BIS, and Yoshimura, head of the bank's foreign exchange department, launched the covert plan while maintaining contact with Shunichi Kase, then envoy to Switzerland. Kitamura and Yoshimura held intense talks with Jacobsson from July 10 to 13, according to the documents from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University in New Jersey. The talks resulted in the compilation of Kitamura's proposal that the Imperial family be secured and the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, promulgated in 1889, be preserved. Dubbed the Meiji Constitution, it referred to the nation's emperor as "sacred and inviolable." Jacobsson compiled a report of the discussions in a memorandum to Dulles. Jacobsson reported that he insisted no negotiations would be possible without Japan's unconditional surrender. He also proposed that Japan release half a dozen imprisoned U.S. soldiers and prisoners of war over the age of 45 as a move of "good faith." In the memo, the Swedish official also said he told his Japanese colleagues that although he thought the Allied Forces did not want to oust the Japanese Imperial family, it would be difficult to obtain a statement confirming that thought, which could only be issued by U.S. President Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. According to Kitamura's proposal, he and Yoshimura were trying to sound out Truman's personal opinion about the status of the Imperial family and the Constitution should Japan agree to an unconditional surrender. Following the talks, Jacobsson traveled to Wiesbaden, Germany, on July 14 to 15 and handed the documents to Dulles, who had been touted for his success in striking a peace deal with German forces in northern Italy in March 1945. Meanwhile, the OSS, the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, had received information that proved to be disadvantageous to the secret negotiations. According to a declassified OSS document, an agent said that Kitamura was "putting out a trial balloon without much authority or backing." "He has been away from his home too long to carry much weight there. Further, I doubt whether a financial man would be given much of a hearing today in that particular country," the agent wrote. At the time, the Japanese government was giving top priority to its talks with the Soviet Union, with which Japan signed a neutrality pact in 1941. Japan wanted the Soviets to act as an intermediary in any peace deal between Japan and the Allied Forces. But Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had promised the Allies that the Soviet Union would attack Japan within 90 days of the surrender of Germany. Germany surrendered to the Allies in May 1945, and the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on Aug. 8 that year. Dulles traveled to Potsdam in eastern Germany on July 20 and relayed the proposals from Kitamura and Yoshimura to Allied leaders gathered to discuss how to end the war, according to the documents. But in a statement of personal impressions dated July 15, Dulles questions the credibility of the two Japanese financial officials in the eyes of their government. In the end, he did not receive a reply to the proposals from Stimson in Potsdam. He later wrote he did not expect an answer as Stimson could not make the decision alone. Overall efforts to stop the war on the Pacific theater hit a snag after the Potsdam Declaration was issued July 26, in which the Allied countries demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan. Dulles, who later headed the CIA, wrote in the foreword to a report on Jacobsson's role in surrender negotiations with Japan that when he met with Stimson on July 20, he did not know the U.S. had successfully tested an atomic bomb July 16 and planned to drop one on Hiroshima on Aug. 6. "One wonders whether, if the Japanese negotiators had come a little earlier and had been more clearly authorized to speak for their government, that explosion would have taken place," he wrote. The Japan Times: Aug. 9, 2000 (C) All rights reserved <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
