Sep 21 05:34 AM US/Eastern(AP) - TOKYO, Sept. 21 (Kyodo) — The Defense Ministry admitted Friday that Japan provided 800,000 U.S. gallons of fuel to a U.S. tanker in the Arabian Sea prior to the 2003 U.S. attack on Iraq, revising upward its initial declaration that the amount was 200,000 gallons.
The announcement came after a Japanese peace group suggested the previous day that the Maritime Self-Defense Force replenishment ship Tokiwa effectively provided illegal logistic support for the war by indirectly supplying fuel to the U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk.
Defense Minister Masahiko Komura indicated, however, that there is no change in Japan's position that it provided the oil for U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan, the amount notwithstanding, and dismissed the allegation.
The ministry cited a data input error as the reason for the mistake.
On Friday, the peace group, Peace Depot, claimed that the Tokiwa provided 800,000 gallons of oil to the U.S. oiler Pecos on Feb. 25, not 200,000 gallons as the Japanese government initially said.
Pecos transferred a similar amount of oil to the Kitty Hawk the same day, and the carrier moved straight to the Persian Gulf, the group said, based on Pecos' logbooks. The Kitty Hawk took part in the Iraq war.
The suspicion that Japan was indirectly involved in the Iraq war through the fueling of the Kitty Hawk first emerged in May 2003 in Japan.
At that time, the Japanese government dismissed the allegation, saying that the aircraft carrier could consume 200,000 gallons of fuel in a single day, and that the fuel would not be used for operations linked to the Iraq war.
Under the special antiterrorism law, MSDF activities are limited under the war-renouncing Constitution to the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of allied ships deployed for the antiterrorism operations.
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