FOREIGN OFFICE FILES FOR JAPAN AND THE FAR EAST
Series Three: Embassy & Consular Archives - Japan (post 1945)
(Public Record Office Class FO 262)

Detailed Correspondence for 1945-1957 (PRO Class FO 262/2040-2132)

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Series Three of our microfilm project from the Public Record Office FOREIGN OFFICE FILES FOR JAPAN AND THE FAR EAST covering Embassy and Consular Archives - Japan (post 1945) provides detailed correspondence for 1945- 1957. (PRO Class FO 262/2040-2132).

These Embassy and Consular files are a prime source for social, political, economic and diplomatic historians studying the history of modern Japan. There are interviews with General Douglas MacArthur, key files on the Japanese Constitution , the Peace Treaty, Japanese relations with Asia and comment on Proceedings of the Japanese Diet.

Throughout the files scholars can find the assessments of the Ambassador - Sir Charles Gascoigne - and other Embassy Staff, the Allied Council for Japan, the U.K. Liaison Mission in Japan and from 1952 the reorganisation of Consular Representation after Sovereign Independence.

There is excellent material from the British perspective on:

• General Douglas MacArthur.
• The Occupation of Japan and SCAP Headquarters.
• Underground anti-democratic forces in Japan.
• Korea and Russia.
• The Japanese Peace Treaty.
• The Japanese Constitution.
• Relations with Australia.
• The Black Market in Japan.
• The Economy of Japan.
• Reconstruction.
• Japanese War Criminals.
• Korean War Criminals.
• Iranian Oil; Fuel and Power.
• Japanese Political Affairs.
• Social Welfare of Women.
• Institute of Pacific Relations Conference, Japan, 1954.
• Correspondence between J R Greenwood, H M Consulate-General, Osaka and H Vere Redman, Councillor, Information, Tokyo.
• Political Relations between Japan and the Soviet Union.
• Status of forces in Korea, 1955.
• Shell Oil Company interests in Japan.
• Labour Strike: Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, 1955.
• Commonwealth Meetings in Tokyo.
• Leading Personalities in Japan in 1956.

FO 262 was discontinued after 1957. Nevertheless FO 262 files for the period 1945-1957 are a valuable research resource for all social historians. They complement and certainly do not duplicate FO 371 files. They provide a wealth of detail from highly trained diplomats who were pulling together day-to-day analysis of events on the spot, either in Tokyo, Osaka or at one of the various other consular offices throughout Japan.

Full contents of reel information is provided on each reel of film. Series Three is complete in only 7 reels. However, the material is very rich indeed. The material is organised in such a way that there is one file per piece number. For more details please see the Contents of Reels information.

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