o
as
‘
c. Damages to the fishing trade from expansion
of the danger area necessitating a detour to fishing
areas ~- 125,764,241 yen, or $349,345 U.S.
d. Damages to the tuna fishing industry
from fall
in tuna prices -- 891,883,112 yen, or $2,477,453 U.S.
e. Damage resulting from market disruption sus~
tained by fish wholesalers, middlemen, retailers -1,332,000,000 yen, or $3,700,000 U.S.
‘f, Special expenses by central and local govern-~
ments and by fishing cooperatives, such as inspection,
purchase of Geiger counters, travel to Tokyo, publicity
intended to quiet the tuna panic -- 36,465,000 yen or
$101,292
U.S.
.
3. Foreign Office representatives in a subsequent conversa-
tion indicated that they were well aware of the indirect and
speculative nature of many of these claims; they stated the
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and its fisheries agency
was responsible for 2.4 and 2.5 billion yen total, and the Foreign
Office was obliged to present their claim,
They thought its
amounts could be kept from the press and gave assurances that if
the Foreign Office was questioned by the. Diet regarding the compensation claim its replies would be evasive, Embassy officers
made no comments; reviewed principles reference telegrams, ~
4, Meanwhile I had spoken with the Foreign Minister in an
attempt to impress on him the desirability of quick and reasonable
settlement, both for long range interests of our cooperation and
for a more favorable atmosphere that would thereby be created
for the Prime Minister's Washington visit. I said that I feit
the urgency of the situation such that on my ow authority I
would undertake with him to explore a compromise settlement and
would propose to my Government that it agree to a $500,000
settlement, if I could have any assurance the Japanese Government would accept some such figure.
5. Okazaki said he thought $500,000 was the minimum acceptable but that if he was "lucky” he could get an agreement on
that figure. He promised to discuss the matter with the Ministers
concerned and to inform me later of their reaction, This morning he telephoned to say it was not possible to give a final
opinion of the Ministers, but that all agreed that an early lump
sum settlement was desirable and that he thought it was worthwhile attempting to reach an agreement at the sum I suggested
or "perhaps a little more."
I told Okazaki that the claims
submitted at the working level mentioned in paragraph 2 above
seemed to me entirely unrealistic and that I would not wish to
submit them formally to Washington, Should I do so I was certain
it would create a bad atmosphere for Yoshida's visit and could
well adversely affect Japan-American relations for some time to
come, Okazaki told me to treat the document given Embassy offi-.
cialis merely as an informal statement and not as an official request for payment. He said that the estimated direct damage was
approximately 300,000,000 yen ($833,333).
He stated he would do
what he could over the week end to persuade the ministers concerned
to accept a reasonable settlement and hoped I would be successful .
- P=
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