Editorial
Japan should acknowledge secret pact with U.S. over port calls by ships carrying nukes
Former Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Ryohei Murata has admitted that there was a secret Japan-U.S. agreement over port calls by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear weapons at the time of the 1960 revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. His remarks, made during a recent interview with the Mainichi Shimbun, were the first for a former administrative vice minister to attest that the pact was passed down among Foreign Ministry officials in the form of documents.
It bears a grave significance that a former top administrative official with the Foreign Ministry has made such a testimony based on his own experience. The government should immediately acknowledge the existence of the pact, and make the facts clear to the public.
The secret pact that Murata has attested to includes records of a meeting between then Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama and then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II in Tokyo in January 1960, at the time of the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. Tokyo and Washington had agreed to hold prior consultations when the U.S. military instituted major changes to their equipment at U.S. bases in Japan. At the meeting, it was confirmed that port calls and passage through Japan's territorial waters by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear weapons would not be subject to prior consultations.
Murata told the Mainichi that he received a document on the pact from his predecessor when he assumed the post of administrative vice foreign minister in July 1987, and that he passed it down to his successor after using it to explain about the pact to foreign ministers during his two-year tenure. This is a significant testimony that implies the Foreign Ministry had systematically administered the secret pact.
The secret pact first surfaced when the Mainichi Shimbun reported in 1981 the remarks by former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin Oldfather Reischauer, who admitted that U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear arms called at Japanese ports under a bilateral accord. His accounts were later underscored by official documents on the part of the U.S. However, the Japanese government has adamantly denied that there was a secret pact. This time around, the government showed no sign of change, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura saying, "There was no secret pact," and, "There are no grounds for doubt over there being no entry of nuclear weapons (into Japanese territories) since there were no prior consultations over the issue."
What is inapprehensible is that the Japanese government has never admitted to the secret pact, after all the revelations by testimonies and official documents here and abroad. It is understandable that the government can not make everything public concerning foreign affairs and security policies in consideration of national interests and the other countries concerned. However, as far as the issue of entry of nuclear weapons into Japanese territories is concerned, almost half a century has passed since the 1960 revision to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, and it's been nearly 30 years since Reischauer's testimony. While the U.S. government has already publicized the pact and a former top Japanese government official has attested to it, Tokyo's denial is beyond our comprehension.
It has also been revealed that there was a secret pact in connection with the U.S. return of Okinawa to Japan. "If we were to take the reins of government, we will make sure to disclose information to the public, including the secret pact concerning Okinawa," said Katsuya Okada, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. If the government is to maintain secrecy over an issue that deeply concerns the country's security policy, it will only adversely affect the government in its attempt to gain the public's trust in Japan's foreign diplomacy.
The Liberal Democratic Party, which has almost consistently served as the nation's ruling party since the revision to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, should clearly recognize that it can no longer get away with its distortion of the issue by saying, "There was no entry of nuclear weapons because there were no prior consultations."
(Mainichi Japan) June 30, 2009