Guides: Sources Relating to U.S. Foreign Relations: East Asia

State Department Records

Confidential U.S. State Department and Diplomatic Post Special Files, Asia, 1945–1966
Focusing on political affairs, economic conditions, and policy positions, these documents complement the State Department Central Files and …provide an especially valuable source for working papers, annotated memoranda, verbatim transcripts, drafts, and other informal material,…[including] documents State Department officials considered too sensitive or important to forward to the general Central Files. The set of State Department and Diplomatic Post records covers the U.S. occupation of Japan following World War II, development of postwar Japan, the San Francisco Peace Conference of 1951, and economic conditions in Japan; the Korean War, peace negotiations, U.S.-Korea relations, and the rebuilding of South Korea after the end of fighting in the Korean War; military and economic relations between Japan, Korea, and the U.S. in the 1950s; ANZUS treaty talks with Australia and New Zealand; Nationalist and anti-colonial resistance movements in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaya; and efforts to establish a Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
Political Relations and Conflict between Republican China and Imperial Japan, 1930-1939: Records of the U.S. State Department
RG 59, Records of the U.S. State Department, Central Classified Files, 1930-1939, decimal number 793.94 (Political Relations between China and Japan)
CIA Records on the Cold War: The CAESAR, ESAU, and POLO Papers on China and the Soviet Union, 1953-1973
This collection of declassified analytic monographs and reference aids, designated within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Intelligence (DI) as the CAESAR, ESAU, and POLO series, highlights the CIA's efforts from the 1950s through the mid-1970s to pursue in-depth research on Soviet and Chinese internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations. The documents reflect the views of seasoned analysts who had followed closely their special areas of research and whose views were shaped in often heated debate.
CIA Research Reports, Vietnam and Southeast Asia, 1946-1976 and supplement
Despatches from U.S. Consuls and Ministers in East Asian, late 19th-early 20th Century

China

Chinese Civil War and U.S.-China Relations: Records of the U.S. State Department's Office of Chinese Affairs, 1945-1955
The U.S. State Department’s Office of Chinese Affairs, charged with operational control of American policy toward China, amassed information on virtually all aspects of life there immediately before, during, and after the revolution. Declassified by the State Department, the Records of the Office of Chinese Affairs, 1945-1955, provide valuable insight into numerous domestic issues in Communist and Nationalist China, U.S. containment policy as it was extended to Asia, and Sino-American relations during the post-war period. This product comprises all 41 reels of the former Scholarly Resources microfilm product entitled Records of the Office of Chinese Affairs, 1945-1955.

Subject Files of US State Departments Office of the Republic of China Affairs (1951-1978)
Records of US State Departments Division of Chinese Affairs, 1944-1961
Country Intelligence Reports on China, 1941-1947
This series consists of reports, studies, and surveys on various topics of interest to the Department of State. The reports vary from short memorandums to detailed, documented studies. The topics range from individual commodities or countries to the economic and political characteristics of whole regions. This collection consists of research and intelligence reports prepared during 1941-1947 on China.

Japan

U.S. Diplomatic Post Records: Japan, 1914-1941
The State Department Diplomatic Post Records consist of correspondence and reports from American diplomats stationed around the world. Diplomatic post records are those kept at the embassies or legations rather than those kept in Washington. Diplomatic post records contain the incoming messages from Washington, retained copies of outgoing dispatches, locally gathered information, and background material on decision making. This module includes Japan

Japan at War and Peace, 1930-1949: U.S. State Department Records on the Internal Affairs of Japan
Central Classified Files of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs, Japan, 1930-1949.

Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State 1950-1959
State Departments Bureau of Intelligence and Research Reports: Japan, 1941-1947
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Political Relations, 1930-1939
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Political Relations, 1940-1944
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Political Relations, 1945-1949
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Commercial Relations, 1910-1949
This archive reproduces microfilm of the U.S. Department of State Decimal Files 611.94 and 6194.11. The documents trace the commercial relations between the United States and Japan over the course of almost half a century in the years 1910-1929, 1930-1939, 1940-1944, and 1945-1949. The files are predominantly instructions to -- and dispatches from -- diplomatic and consular officials. Notes between the Department of State and foreign diplomats in the United States, memoranda prepared by State Department officials, and correspondence with officials of other government departments and with private businesses and persons are also featured. Subjects include: advertising, aircraft, commerce, customs administration, drug regulations, duties, embargo, free ports, landing certificates, law, markets, merchandise, prison made goods, pure food and drug regulations, smuggling, tariff treaties, export and import trade, undervaluation of imported merchandise, among many other topics.
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Commercial Relations, 1950-1963
This archive reproduces Decimal File 494 and is based on the microfilm title Records Relating to U.S. Commercial Relations with Japan, for the years 1950-1954, 1955-1959, and 1960-1963. The documents in this collection are predominantly instructions to -- and dispatches from -- diplomatic and consular officials are often accompanied by enclosures. Notes between the Department of State and foreign diplomats in the United States, memoranda prepared by State Department officials, and correspondence with officials of other government departments and with private businesses and persons are also included.
Country Intelligence Reports on Japan, 1941-1947

Korea (also see Japan)

Records on Microfilm

Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to internal affairs of Japan, 1910-1939.
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4512
Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Korea, 1930-1939: Department of State decimal file 895.
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4569
Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Korea, 1940-1944: Department of State decimal file 895.
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4570
Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Korea, 1945-1949: Department of State decimal file 895.
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4571
Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Korea, 1950-1954: Department of State decimal files 795, 895, and 995
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4572
Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to internal affairs of Korea, 1955-1959 : Department of State Decimal Files 795, 795B, 895, 895B, 995, and 995B.
Despatches from United States consuls in Seoul, 1886-1906
Despatches from United States ministers to Korea [1883-1905]
Despatches from United States ministers to China [1843-1906]
Despatches from United States ministers to Japan [1855-1906]
Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to internal affairs of Korea, 1960-1963: Department of State Decimal Files 795, 895, and 995- 795A, 895A, and 995A (North), 795B, 895B, and 995B (South).
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 4574
Reports of the U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan, 1945-1946.
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 3887
China and India [1941-1949]. (O.S.S./State Department intelligence and research reports; pt. 3)
Van Pelt Microtext Center: Microfilm 3165

Other Collections

Political, Economic, and Military Conditions in China: Reports and Correspondence of the U.S. Military Intelligence Division, 1918-1941
Records of the U.S. Information Service in China: Chinese Press Reviews and Summaries, 1944-1950
General George C. Marshall's Mission to China, 1945-1947
Records of George Marshall's failed mission to build a pro-U.S. coalition government of communist and nationalist Chinese.
Economic Cooperation Administrations Relief Mission in Post-War China 1946-1948
Records of the Far Eastern Commission, 1945–1952
All the activities of the multinational Far Eastern Commission (FEC), which oversaw the postwar governing and reconstruction of Japan, are fully documented in this publication.
China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960–1998
Digital National Security Archives collection.
More than 2,000 memos, cables, and studies concerning the relationship between the United States and China, with an emphasis on the 1969-1998 time period. Covers U.S. diplomatic and security relations with China, the economic and scientific association with the PRC, and intelligence estimates and studies concerning the PRC's foreign policy objectives, military capabilities, and internal situation. Documents were declassified through targeted FOIA requests from the State Department (including the Beijing embassy), Defense Department, Commerce, Department, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Pacific Command, and the military services.
Records of the National Council for United States-China Trade, 1973-1983
This collection documents the formation of the National Council for United States-China Trade and its role in the development of U.S.-China trade, and the Council’s library holdings relating to China’s trade and economy. The Council is an association of U.S. business firms interested in trade with the People’s Republic of China. It was formed in 1973 with the encouragement of the U.S. Government.
Tiananmen Square and U.S.-China Relations 1989-1993
Japan and Korea: Summation of Nonmilitary Activities, 1945-1948
The rebuilding of postwar Japan and southern Korea by Allied occupation forces is described here in a series of thirty-six monthly reports. The reports offer detailed information on industrial reparations; conversion of production from military to consumer goods; land reform; restructuring of educational, public health, and welfare programs; and the establishment of a liberal, democratic political system. The reports on SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) activities in Korea cover the administration of civil affairs and reconstructive efforts under the military occupation government and later the South Korean Interim Government.
Japan: U.S. Naval Technical Mission, 1945-1946
The U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan was established on 14 August 1945. The purpose of the mission was to survey Japanese scientific and technological developments of interest to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in the Japanese islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, Hokkaido; China; and parts of Korea. The enterprise entailed the seizure of intelligence material, its examination, the interrogation of personnel, and ultimately the preparation of reports which would appraise the technological status of Japanese industry and the Japanese navy. During the period of operation a total of 655 officers and men served the organization and 185 individual reports were published.
Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group Records, 1979-1981
On May 2, 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira met in Washington, D.C. and agreed to establish the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group—informally known as the "Wise Men." This small group of distinguished persons drawn from private life would submit recommendations to Carter and Ohira for maintaining a healthy bilateral economic relationship between the United States and Japan. Among the issues considered were the role of economic issues in the overall "political-security-cultural relationship," especially Japan’s emerging position as a world power; Japan’s future comprehensive economic security needs; and its involvement in foreign assistance programs. The Group actively solicited the views of the American public (Congress, business, labor, agriculture, public interest groups) to provide an additional forum for those who wished to be heard. The Group also drew upon research that was currently under way in the two countries and sponsored a modest program of separate independent research.