Burati, Valery, March 23, 1982

Valery Burati (April 12, 1908 - July 18, 1988), journalist, union organizer, and public relations officer, was born in the small Italian town of Comano and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1909. He completed his undergraduate education at Bates College in 1932, intending to become a journalist. He worked for various newspapers from 1932 to 1937. After organizing the Newspaper Guild in Springfield, Massachusetts, Burati came to the attention of the CIO. He joined the organization as the New England CIO director of public relations from 1937 until 1942. In September 1942, he was drafted into the Army Air Corps. He arrived in Japan via the Philippines with the Quartermaster Corps (truck company) in late summer, 1945. Soon after, Burati requested a reassignment and was sent to Niigata as a public relations officer for the 27th Infantry Division. The division was sent home within a few months. He was then assigned to the 8th Army Headquarters in Yokohama, where, as public relations officer, he was responsible for organizing the Army coverage of the war crimes trials of Class 2 and 3 war criminals. In April 1946, he left for the United States. In 1948, he returned to Japan as a civilian to work with the Labor Division of GHQ/SCAP and became head of the Labor Relations and Education Department. The main function of Labor Relations was to develop Japanese trade unions and to try to settle labor disputes. He was instrumental in organizing Sohyo, the Japan Federation of Free Trade Unions, with his Japanese counterpart, Kaide Shingo of the Japanese Labor Ministry. Burati was sent back to the United States in 1951 for a purported violation of Civil Service regulations, but was quickly appointed as Head of the Labor and Social Welfare Division in the Philippines. He left government service in 1953 and worked for the American Travel Association and for the Economic Productivity Agency. He returned to government service in 1960 to work as a consultant for the International Cooperation Administration (ICA) and for the Agency for International Development (AID). He worked for AID until his retirement in 1973.