directive with SCAJAP 579, serial 64, of 23 October 1945, which contains the first re- 
corded mention of pelagic sealing by the Occupation. SCAJAP S79 not only directed the 
subsiesion of a complete list of all types of sea animals which were to be or had been 
hunted by these vessele, it aleo called the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture and 
Forestry to the provision of the Fur Seal Convention of 1911 and warned that "no hunting 
or other activity prohibited by the convention is authorized". Thus the Japanese were 
advised early in the Occupation that pelagic sealing would not de countenanced. No record 
exists, however, of compliance to these directives or of active enforcement of their terns. 
Gver-all policy for the management of fishing and other aquatic resources in Japan 
was established by the State-War-Havy Coordinating Committee for the Far East in a direc- 
tive published 7 Hovember 1945. Among other provisions this directive ordered that Japan 
fishing operations should conform strictly to: 
Be The provisions of agreements relating to whaling and other agreements relating 
to conservation to which the United States is a party. 
b. The policy or rules governing specific fisheries announced by the United 
States or by other governments in conformity with the policy announced by the United States 
with respect to coastal fisheries. 
c. The Japanese national and local regulations for the conservation of fisheries. 
This so-called “SWHCC" directive calle specific attention to the fur seal situ- 
ation in paragraph 13 of its discussion, which notes the Japanese abrogation of the fur 
seal treaty and the subsequent interim agreements signed by Canada and the United States 
governing the northeast Pacific area. It states further, "Until the facts as to the con- 
dition of the Robben and Kuril Island herds are established, any sealing which may be 
authorized by the government during the occupation period should be undertaken in confornm- 
ity with sound conservation principles. All pelagic sealing should be prohibited." 
Wo directive was ever given to the Japanese Government to take positive steps to 
prevent pelagic sealing because it was not considered necessary. Japanese law, as has 
already been seen, prohibited any sealing operations except by license of the Ministry of 
Agriculture and Forestry, and the provisions of SCAJAP S79 forbade the issuance of such 
licenses. It must be remembered that no one outside of Japan at this time, nor any Occu- 
pation personnel in Japan, had any knowledge whatever of the pelagic sealing operations in 
which the Japanese had engaged as described in the previous sections. The Occupation was 
unaware until the winter of 1948-49 that illicit pelagic sealing was still being conducted 
surreptitiously by the Japanese. 
The first information on the status of fur seals in post-csurrender Japan was 
obtained in June 1947 when the Wildlife Branch, Hatural Resources Section, made a prelimi- 
nary survey of the fur resources in Hokkaido and inspected the stocks on hand of the major 
wholesale fur buyers in Hakodate. Eight hundred fur seal pelts were found at one estab- 
lishment and 500 at another. The proprietors of these establishments claimed that these 
pelts came from Robben Island and had been in their stocks since before the war. They 
denied that any pelagic sealing had been conducted since the surrender but admitted they 
received annually about 25 pelts taken accidentally by fishermen i- drift-net operations 
for tuna and shark off the coast. They also volunteered the information that a few fur 
seal pelts were still being emuggled down from Sakhalin by refugees, who reported inciden- 
tally that the Russians took 13,000 pelte from the Robben Ieland herd in 1946. 
Occupation officiale recognized that, if the necessary information on the fur seal 
in Asiatic waters was to be obtained, an intensive study of the fur seal would have to be 
made in Japan. The limited personnel of the Wildlife Branch precluded making such an in- 
vestigation without additional help. Realizing that the Occupation offered an excellent 
opportunity to obtain information of possible importance to the management of the Pribilof 
herds, the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior cooperated by as- 
signing the junior author of this report to assist in this research for a limited time. 
31 
