ABSTRACT
While Government Section was working feverishly, and in complete secrecy, to complete a draft constitution for Japan, it was simultaneously demanding that the Japanese government submit its own draft. On February 8, 1946, the chairman of the Government's Committee to Study Constitutional Problems, Matsumoto Joji, sent to Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) a "Gist of the Revision of the Constitution" along with a general explanation of the revision. But SCAP apparently did not interpret this as a formal government action; it was described instead as "an informal submission by the Japanese side". Shirasu spent much of the afternoon of February 13 and the next day talking to Whitney at SCAP headquarters. Though the subject of their conversation is not clear from the record, we can guess its content from a letter in English that Shirasu delivered to Whitney on February 15.
