The Justice Ministry told the United States in October 1953 that legal authorities would not exercise jurisdiction in criminal cases in which U.S. service members are suspected of crimes unless the cases are "of material importance to Japan," a recently discovered memorandum shows.
The memo, written by a ministry official apparently to a U.S. military officer, was found by researcher Shoji Niihara, an expert on U.S.-Japanese relations.
The memo was one of several recently discovered documents found at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Niihara said at a news conference Thursday in Tokyo.