Proclamation 3349—United States of America-Japan Centennial Year

Whereas a special Japanese mission, comprising three principal officers together with nearly seventy subordinates, arrived in Washington on May 14, 1860, presented credentials to President Buchanan on May 17, exchanged the ratifications of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858 on May 22, took leave of the President on June 5, and sailed from New York for Japan on June 30, 1860; and

Whereas the visit of this mission to the United States, which was an act of reciprocity for the missions of Matthew C. Perry and Townsend Harris to Japan, provided an auspicious introduction of Japanese officials to this country; and

Whereas the year 1960 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States; and

Whereas in signing the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security on January 19, 1960, the two nations have envisaged a lasting partnership based on equality and on mutual interest and understanding; and

Whereas both Governments look forward to the celebration of this year as the centennial of reciprocal United States-Japanese diplomatic relations:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the year 1960 to be the United States of America-Japan Centennial Year.

I call upon all agencies and officers of the Federal Government, upon the Governors of the States, and upon the American people to observe this year as the United States of America-Japan Centennial Year.

I urge that throughout this period—especially during the week from September 27 to October 3—appropriate steps be taken, through celebrations, visits, and other observances and activities, to emphasize both the historical event of a century ago and the inauguration of a new era in the relations between the two countries, founded on amity, common interest, mutual trust, and cooperation, with the view that intelligence, imagination, and wisdom among our respective peoples may be brought into full play to achieve a world at peace with freedom and justice.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this fourteenth day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-fourth.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

LOY W. HENDERSON,

Acting Secretary of State