“Do Your Best”: The Marathon Meeting
“Do Your Best”: The Marathon Meeting
Describes how a thirty‐hour meeting on March 4 and 5 achieved agreement on a preliminary draft constitution. As Matsumoto's draft was being translated, he and Kades clashed over the preamble and provisions on the emperor and Matsumoto withdrew, leaving Satō Tatsuo the sole Japanese negotiator. Kades told Satō that the preamble and chapters on the emperor and imperial family, renunciation of war, rights of the people, and powers of the legislature must adhere to the SCAP draft, while accepting Japanese proposals on the judiciary, the cabinet and local government. When Whitney informed the cabinet that MacArthur would publish the draft on March 6, the cabinet polished the wording and presented it to Hirohito, who reluctantly approved it without delay as an “amendment” to the 1889 constitution. Hussey had the cabinet secretary certify that the English version was the “exact and official translation of the original Japanese” and submitted copies to the Far Eastern Commission in Washington.
Keywords: Far Eastern Commission, Hirohito approves constitutional amendment, Rodman Hussey, Japanese proposals, Charles Kades, March 4‐5 meeting, Matsumoto's draft, Matsumoto‐Kades clash, SCAP draft, Satō Tatsuo
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