Lay bare all secrets related to Japan-U.S. Security Treaty

Japan Press Weekly

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Lay bare all secrets related to Japan-U.S. Security Treaty
Akahata editorial

Four former administrative vice foreign ministers in early June acknowledged the existence of a secret Japan-U.S. agreement allowing U.S. nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan.

Murata Ryohei, one of these four top foreign bureaucrats, testified that he had received from his predecessor a document on the secret agreement. This gives rise to criticism of the government for continuing to deny the existence of such a secret agreement.

The point is that former foreign ministers confirmed the existence of the text of the secret agreement, which has become known from declassified U.S. documents.

We demand that the government release the secret agreement and scrap it. It is all the more important to drastically review all Japan-U.S. secret deals that are based on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

Hush-hush

Murata Ryohei was administrative vice foreign minister for two years from July 1987. In his memoir published in September 2008, he revealed the historical fact that at the time when the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960, Japan and the United States reached a secret understanding that "no prior consultation is required for U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japanese ports or sail in Japanese territorial waters.

In his recent testimony, Murata was more specific about the existence of the secret agreement. He said that the secret agreement was written on a foreign ministry writing pad and was kept in an envelop and that he "explained the document to foreign ministers." This is the statement that the person who was involved in the affair made.

The secret agreement was concluded when the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960.

The Japanese Communist Party obtained the original text of the secret agreement dated January 6, 1960, titled, "Record of discussion" at the U.S. National Archives. In the Diet in March and April 2000, then JCP Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo questioned Prime Ministers Obuch Keizo and Mori Yoshiro on this secret agreement.

The government persistently denied the existence of the secret agreement, but testimonies by Murata and other former vice foreign ministers have proved beyond doubt that the government was lying in response to the JCP question.

Thus, the Japanese government allowed U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear weapons to make port calls in Japan or pass through the territorial waters of Japan. This suggests that the government had no intention of complying with the Three Non-nuclear Principles (not to possess, manufacture, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan). It is completely unacceptable to bring in nuclear weapons to Japan, the only atomic bombed country. We will force the government to make public this policy and nullify the secret agreement, and strictly observe the principle of not allowing nuclear weapons to be brought in.

We cannot overlook the fact that secret agreements relating to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty are not just about allowing nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan. Controversial secret agreements have been revealed over allowing the U.S. forces to use Japan as a stepping stone for making attacks in the event of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, over the reversion to Japan of the administrative rights over Okinawa, and over Japan's surrender to the U.S. of jurisdiction over U.S. servicemen guilty of crime committed in Japan. Secret agreements have existed ever since the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was concluded.

Secret agreements were produced for the purpose of evading public criticism of the humiliating Security Treaty with the United States that violates Japan's national sovereignty and threatens the peace and security of the Japanese people. We must not allow this to continue to exist in the 21st century. It is important to struggle to demand the abrogation of the Security Treaty while calling for all secret agreements to be scrapped.

Parliament has responsibility to fulfill

Following former vice foreign ministers' testimonies, the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House of Councilors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense are considering subpoenaing Murata and other officials concerned to testify in parliament. It is without a precedent for the Diet to proactively move to clear up a secret agreement issue.

The legislature has the responsibility to not allow the lies of the government to continue unchallenged. For the Diet to examine into the darkness of the secret agreements, it will also help the aberrant Japan-U.S. relations to be corrected.

- Akahata, July 5, 2009