Panel confirms existence of 3 of 4 secret Japan-U.S. pacts
Jan. 4, 2010
A Japanese government panel has confirmed the existence of three out of four secret Japan-U.S. pacts involving the 1960 revision of the bilateral security treaty and the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan from U.S. control, government sources said Tuesday.
The three are those involving Japan's agreement on stopovers and passage of nuclear-armed U.S. warships, use of U.S. military bases in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula, and allowing the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in times of emergency.
The remaining pact allegedly involves Japan's sharing the cost of the reversion of Okinawa.
The panel, led by Shinichi Kitaoka, a professor at the University of Tokyo, plans to file a report on its investigations with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada by the end of January.
Panel members have examined a Foreign Ministry in-house report on the secret pacts and conducted a series of interviews with retired ministry officials over the matter, the sources said.
In the course of the process, the panel found the minutes of talks between former Japanese Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur that confirm the existence of a secret pact on the use of U.S. military bases in Japan in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula without holding prior consultations with Japan.
A Foreign Ministry panel found what appears to be a draft document suggesting that Japan agreed to exempt stopovers at Japanese ports or passage through Japanese territorial waters by nuclear-armed U.S. warships from a list of matters for prior consultation.
The government panel decided the document substantiates the existence of such a secret pact, the sources said.
It plans to ask relatives of former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato to submit a document on a secret pact signed by him and U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1969 that allows the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of a contingency, the sources said.
Sato's family said earlier this month that they have preserved this document.
Meanwhile, no document has been found to confirm a secret pact on Japan's sharing the cost of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan, the sources said.
But on Dec. 1, Bunroku Yoshino, the Foreign Ministry's former American Bureau chief, testified in court that the two countries struck an accord in which Japan would shoulder $4 million in costs on the reversion of Okinawa.
The panel suspects the document on the cost burden might have been abandoned, the sources said, but it plans to hold interviews with former Finance Ministry officials on the issue.
Shortly after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama took office in September, Okada issued an instruction for the alleged secret pacts to be investigated.
Official U.S. documents and testimony from people involved in the issue have already confirmed the existence of the secret pacts, but successive Japanese governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party consistently denied their existence.
The Foreign Ministry's in-house team filed a report on its investigation with Okada on Nov. 20.
The six-member government-appointed panel held its first meeting a week later on Nov. 27 to look into the in-house report. The six panel members are all university professors well versed in Japan-U.S. relations.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Dec. 29, 2009)
The three are those involving Japan's agreement on stopovers and passage of nuclear-armed U.S. warships, use of U.S. military bases in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula, and allowing the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in times of emergency.
The remaining pact allegedly involves Japan's sharing the cost of the reversion of Okinawa.
The panel, led by Shinichi Kitaoka, a professor at the University of Tokyo, plans to file a report on its investigations with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada by the end of January.
Panel members have examined a Foreign Ministry in-house report on the secret pacts and conducted a series of interviews with retired ministry officials over the matter, the sources said.
In the course of the process, the panel found the minutes of talks between former Japanese Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur that confirm the existence of a secret pact on the use of U.S. military bases in Japan in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula without holding prior consultations with Japan.
A Foreign Ministry panel found what appears to be a draft document suggesting that Japan agreed to exempt stopovers at Japanese ports or passage through Japanese territorial waters by nuclear-armed U.S. warships from a list of matters for prior consultation.
The government panel decided the document substantiates the existence of such a secret pact, the sources said.
It plans to ask relatives of former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato to submit a document on a secret pact signed by him and U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1969 that allows the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of a contingency, the sources said.
Sato's family said earlier this month that they have preserved this document.
Meanwhile, no document has been found to confirm a secret pact on Japan's sharing the cost of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan, the sources said.
But on Dec. 1, Bunroku Yoshino, the Foreign Ministry's former American Bureau chief, testified in court that the two countries struck an accord in which Japan would shoulder $4 million in costs on the reversion of Okinawa.
The panel suspects the document on the cost burden might have been abandoned, the sources said, but it plans to hold interviews with former Finance Ministry officials on the issue.
Shortly after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama took office in September, Okada issued an instruction for the alleged secret pacts to be investigated.
Official U.S. documents and testimony from people involved in the issue have already confirmed the existence of the secret pacts, but successive Japanese governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party consistently denied their existence.
The Foreign Ministry's in-house team filed a report on its investigation with Okada on Nov. 20.
The six-member government-appointed panel held its first meeting a week later on Nov. 27 to look into the in-house report. The six panel members are all university professors well versed in Japan-U.S. relations.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Dec. 29, 2009)
