Schnurman, Ned Papers

The papers of Ned Schnurman consist of interview transcripts, program scripts, printed materials, correspondence, and other items relating to the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II and to a projected television documentary on the subject.

Size: 5 linear inches (about 800 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the United States of America all her copyrights in this collection, and in any of her writings that may be in any other collection of papers at the Harry S. Truman Library. Documents created by U.S. Government officials in the course of their duties are also in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Kate Nickle (2011) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The Papers of Ned Schnurman consist of interview transcripts, program scripts, printed materials, correspondence, and other items related to the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II and to a projected television documentary on the subject. Except for brief biographical sketches, all of the information pertains to the documentary.

Most of the collection consists of transcripts of interviews conducted in 1993-1994 for a proposed television documentary, "Genesis of a New Japan." The ten interview subjects were officials who had been involved in the U.S. occupation of Japan and the creation of the democratic Japanese Constitution, or scholars with expertise in the history of postwar Japan.

A variety of printed materials are in the collection, primarily the products of background research for the documentary. Included are newspaper articles, film lists from the Library of Congress, and chapters from books.

Two videotapes from the Schnurman Papers have been transferred to the Truman Library's Audiovisual Collection.

A small amount of correspondence in the collection relates to the career of Charles Kades, an important figure in the development of the Japanese Constitution, and to his interview in 1994.

Related information can be found at the Truman Library in the Papers of Dale M. Hellegers.