Executive Order 10393—Establishment of the Clemency and Parole Board for War Criminals

By the virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the Statutes, and as President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

1. There is hereby established a Clemency and Parole Board for War Criminals (hereinafter referred to as the Board). The Board shall consist of three members, appointed by the President, one of whom shall be designated from the Department of State, one from the Department of Defense, and one from the Department of Justice. Each member shall designate an officer or employee of his department as an alternate member of the Board, who while participating as a member of the Board shall have the same status and functions as the member designating him.

2. The Board shall make the necessary investigation in, and advise the President with respect to, those cases in which a decision of the Government of the United States is required on recommendation by the Government of Japan for clemency, reduction of sentence, or parole, with respect to sentences imposed on Japanese war criminals by tribunals established by the Government of the United States or by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. In making its investigations, the Board may examine witnesses and take testimony to the extent deemed necessary or advisable.

3. The Board shall determine its own procedure and shall act by majority vote. The member designated from the Department of State, or his alternate, shall serve as Chairman. The Board may prescribe rules and regulations deemed necessary or desirable for the purposes of this order.

4. Consonant with law, including section 214 of the Act of May3, 1945, 59 Stat. 134 (31 U.S.C. 691), each member and alternate member of the Board shall receive from the apartment from which he is designated his compensation as an officer or employee of that department but shall receive no additional compensation by reason of service as a member or alternate member of the Board, and the Department of State shall furnish the Board necessary accommodation and facilities. So much of the other expenditures of the Board (including such travel expenses of, and other expense allowances for, members and alternate members of the Board as the President shall hereafter fix) as may be within the limits of an allotment to be made by the President from the appropriation entitled "Emergency Fund for the President-National Defense" in Title I of the 1953 (Public Law 455, 82nd Congress, approved July 5, 1952), shall be paid from the said allotment. Payments from such allotment shall be made without regard to provisions of (a) section 3681 of the Revised Statues (31 U.S.C. 672), (b) section 9 of the Act of March 4, 1909, 35 Stat. 1027 (31 U.S.C. 673), and (c) such other laws as the President may hereafter specify.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

September 4, 1952