Mass media also eyes Japan-U.S. secret deal on N-weapons

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

>Mass media also eyes Japan-U.S. secret deal on N-weapons

With public interest in the alleged Japan-U.S. secret agreement giving tacit approval for the bringing of nuclear weapons into Japan, a national TV network on September 17 broadcast an interview with Fuwa Tetsuzo, director of the Japanese Communist Party Social Sciences Institute.

Fuwa, as the chair of the JCP and member of the House of Representatives, questioned the government in the Diet about the secret deal based on declassified U.S. document he had obtained.

The TV Asahi Network "Super Morning" program took up as the day's feature the issue of the secret nuclear deal with the United States, apparently motivated by an order from Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya on the previous day to investigate into the allegation about the secret agreement allowing U.S. nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan.

During the program, on which Fuwa explained how the secret deal had been made, footage of copies of the secret agreement and its translation provided by Fuwa were shown.

Fuwa said that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty that was revised in 1960 requires both the Japanese and U.S. governments to hold "prior consultation" when the U.S. forces in Japan make "major changes in equipment." However, he said, "Both sides decided that passage of U.S. warships or aircraft carrying nuclear weapons through Japanese territory or their entry into Japanese ports would not be subject to prior consultation. This was a tacit agreement that would never be discussed publicly."

He said that the secret agreement was concluded with the aim of precluding the issue of the entry of nuclear-armed U.S. warships and aircraft into Japanese territory from the requirement of prior consultation.

Fuwa added that Foreign Minister Fujiyama Aiichiro and U.S. Ambassador Douglas MacArthur were the ones, who had come to this agreement in 1959 and signed it in 1960.

- Akahata, September 18, 2009