7 Z — The following sequence of events illustrates some of the difficulties we have had: (1) On March 31 we read in one of the Tokyo English language news- papers of two fishing vessels that were contaminated. The Embassy called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who reported the following information by telephone: (a) The Koei Maru, then at the port of Misaki, was at 9 degrees, 22 minutes north, 178 degrees, 19 minutes east on March 1. The surface of the ship was re ading 243 counts per minute, the catch 155 counts per minute and the men 500 counts per minute. ing a decision as to their safety. The fish had been impounded await- (b) The Myojiim Meru was at Shiogone. On March 1 it was at 29 degrees, 8 minutes north, 177 degrees, 19 minutes east, The surface of the ship was reading 50 to 00 counts per minute, the fish 56 to 84 counts per minute, and the crew 0 to 90 counts per minute. e (2) The Embassy infcrmed the Ministry of Welfare of my interest in seeing the ships and fish and told them a special plane would be availeble to fly me to the two ports. The Foreign office was requested to arrange for access to the vessels and was invited to send whoever they wished to designate with me on this trip. A flight was scheduled for early on the morning of April 2. (3) Around noon on April 1 the Foreign Ministry called the Embassy and advised that the Myojiim aru had left Shiogone that merning, that its destination was not known, and that the fish had been disposed of in an unknown manner, The Embassy informed the Foreign Ministry that, this being the case, we would limit our trip to Misaki. (4) ét 4 PM on the afternoon of April 1 the Frreign Ministry again called to inform the Embassy that the Koei Maru had left the port of Misaki one hour before to dump its contaminated catch at sea. The Enbassy asked ‘the Foreign Ministry to call the vessel back inasmuch as it was only one hour off port but the Japanese stated this could not be accomplished, To summarise the tuna situation, it is my belief that no significantly contaminated tuna have arrived in Japan except for the catch from the Fukuryu Maru. Rigerous inspections procedures will undoubtedly disclose certain amounts of low level radioactivity on the surface of the tuna but the significance of this is minimized by the practice of skinning tuna yrior to canning. In the meantime the tuna market has stabilized and tune representatives of American tuna interests have informed me that their companies are no longer concerned over the problem. Ge pceft heen Mi etelcesbethaceae ee UNCLASSIFIED