This study is a report to clarify the enactment process of the Kenchikushi Law for Architects and Building Engineers after WW II by reviewing GHQ (General Headquarters, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) documents. The author had found this process only from the documents written in Japanese through his previous studies. During allied era, in case of the submission to the Diet of the bill, all the bills needed to obtain agreement from GHQ. For this reason, by reviewing the GHQ documents, there is a possibility to clarify how GHQ evaluated this bill, what kind of negotiation they had, and so on.
In this study, the author tried to find the details of negotiation between Japan and GHQ by reviewing the GHQ documents which were collected in National Archives at College Park, Maryland (NARA II), National Diet Library, Japan (NDL), and Building Research Institute, Japan (BRI)
The results are as follows:
1. Sections in charge of this Law in GHQ were Economic and Scientific Section (ESS) and Legal Section (LS). Industrial Production and Construction Branch, Industry Division, ESS inspected the structure of this Law, from August 1949 to January 1950. LS checked the provisions of this Law, after February 1950. The person in charge at ESS was Earl F. Stanek, who was the industrial specialist of construction.
2. Earl F. Stanek initially recognized this Law as “While not being perfect or up to Stateside standards, it represents a basis on which a better Architects License Law will eventually be developed.” But he finally indicated that it should be changed upon the qualification of Kenchikushi. The reasons not to change the chapter were as the qualification of Kenchikushi, Ryoichi Naito, Ministry of Construction thought that the qualification needed to follow the actual condition of Japan. Stanek accepted Naito’s reasoning.
3. LS pointed out the fact in Chapter V: “Registration of architect's offices is required, although the architect individually must also have a license” was irrelevant and should be avoided. But as the reason for the chapter of Architect's Office in this Law to remain, GHQ thought Ministry of Construction intended this chapter as their source of revenue to help administer the law. Against the indication of GHQ, Ministry of Construction had agreed to almost all these of this Law, but they never accepted these two requirements.
4. There were different and various opinions between Ministry of Construction and the Association of Nippon Architects (ANA). Some officials of Ministry of Construction agreed to the original opinions of ANA. And, the executives of ANA agreed to the bill of Architects Law which was created by Ministry of Construction as “contractors may retain architects in their designing sections,” but some members of ANA did not agree. Finally, they tried to force GHQ to change the provisions of this Law. In previous surveys, no one ever clarified these facts during enactment of this Law, which however has been proven by this study.
