The Yomiuri Shimbun
A Foreign Ministry expert panel that has been studying whether a secret agreement existed between Japan and the United States on bringing nuclear weapons into Japan expressed interest in the text of the top secret deal said to be in the possession of the family of former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato (1901-1975).
Following the revelation Tuesday of the document's existence, the Foreign Ministry, which has been insisting that there was no such pact, had no choice but to admit that the accord existed.
The document lays out the agreement to allow the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Japan in an emergency. The accord was reached as part of negotiations for the return of Okinawa between Sato and then U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1969 and was found by the late prime minister's family at his residence.
Before the discovery was revealed, many experts believed the document was probably destroyed by Sato. It was not found in the United States, and its existence was indicated only in a few sources, such as a book written by the late Kei Wakaizumi, a former professor of Kyoto Sangyo University who reportedly was Sato's secret envoy in clandestine negotiations with the United States.
Just as Wakaizumi wrote in the book, the document bore both Sato's and Nixon's signatures in full.
"The 'd' in Nixon's signature has a peculiar shape. There's no doubt it's his genuine signature," said Nihon University Prof. Takashi Shinobu, who has studied secret pacts between Japan and the United States.
According to internal investigations at the ministry, no secret document concerning any agreement on bringing nuclear weapons into Okinawa Prefecture has been found.
"This document is in possession of Sato's family, so it is highly likely the agreement existed," a person close to the expert panel said.
"We can't ignore [the document]," said another person involved in the panel, showing interest in interviewing members of the Sato family.
Many experts say the discovery will not have any significant impact on the Japan-U.S. security alliance in the immediate future. This is because it is highly likely that Sato kept the document at his home and did not pass it on to subsequent prime ministers.
"Since it hasn't been passed on, the document is not in effect," a senior ministry official said.
"The document doesn't bear much significance today," said University of the Ryukyus Prof. Masaaki Gabe, who has researched secret agreements on Okinawa. "I guess the current strategy by the United States is that it will decide whether or not to bring in nuclear weapons [to Japan] depending on the seriousness of the situation in case there is an emergency in the Korean Peninsula, for example."
If the government admits the existence of the secret pact, that means the integrity of the government's three nonnuclear principles--not to possess, not to produce and not to introduce nuclear weapons--will be questioned.
Also to be expected is that more people will call for switching to the so-called 2.5 nonnuclear principles, which allows planes carrying nuclear weapons to land in Japan, from the viewpoint of maintaining nuclear deterrence provided by the United States.
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Parties views on pact discovery
The major political parties have issued comments on the discovery.
"I think Mr. Sato thought at the time [the agreement] was necessary," said Yukihisa Fujita, director general of the International Department of the Democratic Party of Japan. "I guess the government led by the Liberal Democratic Party denied [the existence of the pact] with the integrity [of the three nonnuclear principles] in mind, but it's important to examine it now so that we can learn some lessons for the future."
Azuma Koshiishi, chairman of the DPJ caucus in the House of Councillors, said, "[The discovery] proved that the DPJ's stance [to pledge to solve the secret pact issue] was right."
"We should maintain the three nonnuclear principles," Social Democratic Party Vice President Seiji Mataichi said.
On the contrary, Shigeru Ishiba, the chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council, said, "Arguing that we shouldn't forgive the fact that the pact was kept secret won't have any beneficial influence on the Japan-U.S. relations from now. What we need are coolheaded and serious discussions on the significance of nuclear deterrence."
"Japan-U.S. relations are now being shaken up by the issue of relocation of the U.S. military's Futenma Air Station. We shouldn't confuse the situation any further," New Komeito President Natsuo Yamaguchi said, insisting on the need for both countries to closely discuss nuclear deterrence for the future.
Sato apparently said nothing about the document in his lifetime, even to his wife, while Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama recently showed his carelessness by mentioning to reporters the content of an unofficial conversation between himself and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It is as if the document is alluding to what kind of determination a prime minister should show.
(Dec. 24, 2009)
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