The Yomiuri Shimbun
The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column from The Yomiuri Shimbun's April 11 issue.
* * *
It is far more difficult to prove that something doesn't exist than it is to prove that something does exist.
Proving that something is nonexistent is known as a "devil's proof." The officials at the foreign and finance ministries who sorted through massive amounts of files to prove that secret pacts with the United States didn't exist most surely understood the diabolical reference.
The chore in question was in connection with a lawsuit filed by a group that included former Mainichi Shimbun reporter Takichi Nishiyama. It demanded the disclosure of documents on secret pacts with the United States related to the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan. The Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
With the ruling, the court ordered the state to disclose information that it has repeatedly denied exists.
The ministries asserted the documents couldn't have existed in the first place. And, even if they did, they said, the documents already would have been destroyed. Yet the court did not recognize the central government's argument that "you can't squeeze blood from a stone."
The court said the documents must have existed, and if the ministries say the documents would have already been destroyed, they should investigate and prove it. The court went so far as to call the central government's responses "insincere and treacherous."
I wonder what the public thinks of this lawsuit.
A former senior Foreign Ministry official who was then in charge of negotiating the issue with the U.S. government has appeared as a witness in court, admitting publicly the existence of secret pacts and related documents.
Bolstered by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's positive attitude toward the elucidation of secret pacts, a special panel confirmed four secret agreements last month.
Thirty-eight years have passed since the Nishiyama incident [in which the reporter was convicted over the leaking of classified documents related to the Okinawa handover].
"I think we've experienced a kind of information revolution. This ruling was epoch-making," said Nishiyama, with a mixture of emotions, after the court ruling.
(Apr. 15, 2010)
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