Editorial
Gov't urged to thoroughly investigate Japan-U.S. secret pact following court ruling
The Tokyo District Court has ruled that Japan and the United States signed a secret pact on the 1972 reversion of Okinawa, and ordered government organizations including the Foreign Ministry to disclose relevant documents as demanded by the plaintiffs.
In the first court ruling that clearly recognized the existence of a Japan-U.S. secret agreement, the court bitterly criticized the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry for their sloppy investigations into the issue. The ministries should take the ruling seriously, and get to the bottom of the case through reinvestigations.
Former Mainichi Shimbun staff writer Takichi Nishiyama and other plaintiffs including scholars demanded that they be given access to documents on a secret agreement stipulating Japan would foot the costs of the reversion of Okinawa, which the United States was supposed to shoulder. They include documents showing that Japan agreed to bear $4 million needed to restore closed U.S. bases to their original state and $16 million for the relocation the Voice of America short-wave radio station.
Documents showing the secret accord have not been found in Japan, though a panel of experts set up by the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry have concluded that "there was a secret pact in a broader sense."
In the ruling, the Tokyo District Court determined that Tokyo had reached agreement with Washington to shoulder the financial burdens without announcing it to the public. As to the reason for signing the secret pact, the court clearly asserted that the government did not want to give the public the impression that it would buy back Okinawa from Washington.
Also noteworthy is the court's criticism that the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry conducted the investigations in a sloppy manner.
The court said the government cannot fulfill its responsibility for conducting investigations into confidential documents unless it thoroughly questions each individual who was involved or suspected of having been involved. It then pointed out that if such documents have been destroyed, the government organization concerned made the decision under the order of a top-ranking official.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has suggested that the ministry will appeal the ruling to a higher court. The ruling may contain some assertions that are unacceptable to Okada as the foreign minister who instructed bureaucrats to investigate the secret pact following the transfer of power in September last year.
However, critics have pointed out that the Foreign Ministry's in-house investigation -- after which the panel of experts concluded that there was a secret pact in a broader sense -- was limited by the insufficient time given to officials in charge.
Even though the government decided not to disclose the relevant documents under the previous administration led by the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government should take seriously the court's criticism that the Foreign Ministry's attitude toward the investigation was insincere and ignored the people's right to know.
Furthermore, the ruling asserted that if a request is made for disclosures of any document proven to have been compiled, and the government claims that the document no longer exists, it must show evidence to prove its claim. Moreover, it deemed that the foreign minister involved also neglected the duty to take due care to ensure appropriate investigations would be conducted. The ruling should be hailed as it urges the government to deal with the issue in a sincere manner.
(Mainichi Japan) April 10, 2010