Clinton Albert Feissner, a former communications official with the Allied Occupation authority in Japan after World War II, died Monday of multiple organ failure, a friend in charge of his funeral said Wednesday. Feissner was 99.
A native of Freeland, Pa., he is known for having helped set up the foundation for Japan's postwar broadcasting law, spelling out its basic principles, including freedom of broadcasting, in the so-called Feissner memo.
He served as a senior researcher in the Civil Communication Section of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers that was in charge of the Occupation after Japan's defeat. Some of the personnel in SCAP effectively wrote the first draft of the Constitution.
Feissner died at his home in the town of Kawasaki, Miyagi Prefecture, where he had been living since the 1970s, according to his friend, Yoshiyuki Sato.