Rusk documents

The Rusk documents (Rusk-Yang correspondence) are the official diplomatic correspondence sent by Dean Rusk, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, to You Chan Yang (梁裕燦), the South Korean ambassador to the U.S. The documents show the negotiating position of the U.S. State Department at the time.

The correspondence states the negotiating position as:

• Japanese sovereignty was not permanently limited to the home islands; that is, the Potsdam Declaration did not formally or permanently renounce sovereignty over all areas outside those listed in the Declaration..
• The Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima) would not be addressed in the peace treaty.
• The MacArthur line stands until the conclusion of the Treaty of San Francisco.
• Japan has no obligation to compensate for damage to private property owned by Koreans that was damaged in Japan during the war.
• Japanese property in Korea is pursuant to directives of United States Military Government.

Dean Rusk in 1968

Background

(Draft) Negotiating position that Liancourt Rocks shall be Japanese territory.

"The Rusk documents" by Dean Rusk, 1951

During the preparation of the Treaty of San Francisco, the following communications were exchanged between the South Korean government and the U.S. Government at that time. As these were communications outlying the U.S. position, they do not necessarily indicate legal truths.

• December 29, 1949 (see Draft Treaty of Peace With Japan)

The Allied Powers prepared the Draft Treaty of Peace With Japan (Treaty of San Francisco).

It described Takeshima (Dokdo) was to be Japanese territory. (Chapter II Territorial Clauses,　Article 3)

• June 25, 1950 (see Korean war)

Beginning of Korean war

• July, 1951 (see Korean war)

Beginning of Korean war cease-fire talks (face hard going)

• Jury 19, 1951 (See Requests From Korea Jury 19, 1951)

Three demands of the above-mentioned were submitted to the draft by the South Korean ambassador Dr. You Chan Yang.

• August 2, 1951 (See Requests From Korea August 2,1951)

The demands were submitted again by the South Korean ambassador.

• August 10, 1951 The Rusk documents

The notification was sent by Dean Rusk to the South Korea ambassador as a final U.S. Government reply.

• January 18, 1952 (see Syngman Rhee line)

The Syngman Rhee line was declared (beginning of Dokdo dispute)

• April 28, 1952 (see Treaty of San Francisco)

The treaty of peace with Japan (Treaty of San Francisco) was concluded (the independence of Korea)

• July 27, 1953 (see Korean war)

Agreement on an armistice (Korea didn't attend signing ceremony)

• 1954 "Report of Ambassador James A. Van Fleet"

Unilateral proclamation of sovereignty over the seas (Syngman Rhee line) is illegal

The United States had concluded Japanese sovereignty over the rocks

The dispute over the rocks might properly be referred to the International Court of Justice

Korean request

Three demands from the South Korean government to the U.S. government were as follows;

1. Dokdo (Takeshima/Liancourt Rocks) are added to the abandoning territory in Japan and considered as Korean territory on August 9, 1945.
2. The legal transfer of vested properties of Japanese in Korea to Korea.
3. Admit the continuation of the MacArthur Line(*) in the Treaty of San Francisco.

(*)The MacArthur Line was a fishery operation district in Japan of which Douglas MacArthur issued as SCAPIN-1033 when he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP).

The U.S. Government accepted processing of the Japanese properties in Korea in the notification, however, didn't consent to the demands of the dominium of Takeshima and the MacArthur Line continuation. U.S. answered about the dispute over Takeshima (Dokdo) as follows,

"As regards the islands of Dokdo, otherwise known as Takeshima or Liancourt Rocks never treated as part of Korea and, since about 1905, has been under the jurisdiction of the Oki Islands Branch Office of Shimane Prefecture of Japan. The Island does not appear ever before to have been claimed by Korea."

Reply of the U.S. State Department (the Rusk documents)

Finality of restrictions on Japanese sovereignty

Korea had sought an amendment formalizing the date Japan had ceded control of Korea, and including several disputed islands as Korean territory, at the point of Japanese acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. The United States rejected this:

"The United States Government does not feel that the Treaty should adopt the theory that Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration on August 9, 1945 constituted a formal or final renunciation of sovereignty by Japan over the areas dealt with in the Declaration."

Liancourt Rocks

• Liancourt Rocks are territory of Japan.

Excerpt: "Liancourt Rocks, this normally uninhabited rock formation was according to our information never treated as part of Korea and, since about 1905, has been under the jurisdiction of the Oki Islands Branch Office of Shimane Prefecture of Japan. The island does not appear ever before to have been claimed by Korea."

The final treaty did not address Dokdo. Because Rusk rejected the South Korean request that Japan should renounce islands of Dokdo and Parangdo (an imaginary island) by as a consequence of the peace treaty .

The current position of the U.S. government on the dispute is "does not take a position".

"U.S. policy on the Dokdo/Takeshima Island issue has been and continues to be that the United States does not take a position on either Korea's claim or Japan's claim to the island. Our hope is that the two countries will resolve the issue amicably." (Joseph Yun, U.S. Embassy Political Minister-Counselor in Seoul comments on March 16, 2005)

MacArthur line and Syngman Rhee line

• The MacArthur line stand until Japan conclude Treaty of San Francisco

Excerpt: "the so-called MacArthur line will stand until the treaty comes into force"

However, South Korean President Syngman Rhee disregard it and declared the Syngman Rhee line and the sovereignty over Dokdo on January 18, 1952, just before the Treaty of San Francisco came into force on April 28, 1952.

Compensation of the Korean property

• Japan has no obligation to return the Korean-origin properties of persons in Japan

Excerpt "there would seem to be no necessity to oblige Japan to return the property of persons in Japan of Korean origin since such property was not sequestered or Otherwise interfered with by the Japanese Government during the war. In view of the fact that such persons had the status of Japanese"

Japanese property in Korea

• Excerpt" Japan recognizes the validity of dispositions of property of Japan and Japanese nationals made by or pursuant to directives of United States Military Government in any of the areas referred to in Article 2 and 3."

Meaning of Rusk documents

Shade of meaning

The South Korean government claims the sovereignty on Takeshima (Dokdo) based on the Syngman Rhee line. However, it is confirmed to have thought there is no description of Takeshima in the abandonment territory in Japan by this documents it is a territory in Japan in U.S. Government. Moreover, it had the intention that it is not the one providing to the fishery operation district in Japan after the war and the MacArthur line can be read. In addition, the South Korea government is thought to be recognition at first by thinking there is no validity in those insistences. It was necessary even not to have demanded if it recognized, the improvement was demanded from U.S. Government in the form of , request beforehand, and it did not recognize it.

See also

• Treaty of San Francisco
• Syngman Rhee line
• Liancourt Rocks
• SCAPIN
• Report of Van Fleet Mission to Far East

External links

• Wikisource:Full text of the Draft Treaty of Peace With Japan
• Wikisource:Full text of the Requests From South Korea
• Wikisource:Full text of the Rusk documents
• Catalogs of historical and literal material related to Takeshima/Dokdo issue (竹島／独島関係 史・資料目録), Yuji Fukuhara (The University of Shimane)
• PDF.file [3]