50 years of Japan-US Alliance

Japan Press Weekly

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50 years of Japan-US Alliance
Mechanism of US privileges - Part IV

Japanese government secretly agreed to grant unlimited authority to the US forces

Article 3 of the Administrative Agreement under the former Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which took effect in 1952, states, “The United States shall have the rights, power and authority within the facilities and areas which are necessary or appropriate for their establishment, use, operation, defense or control.”

This shows that even after the U.S. occupation was ended in 1952, the U.S. forces still maintained the special privileges of an occupation army under the Administrative Agreement.

When the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960, the Administrative Agreement was replaced with the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

In the SOFA, Article 3 mentioned above was changed to read, “Within the facilities and areas, the United States may take all the measures necessary for their establishment, operation, safeguarding and control.” The phrase, “the rights, power and authority” were deleted from the text.

The Japanese government at that time explained that in order to clear up the negative impression that the U.S. forces in Japan maintained extraterritorial rights over their military facilities and neighboring areas under Article 3 of the Administrative Agreement, the provision was amended.

Memorandum of secret agreement

However, in order to enable the U.S. forces to keep its special privileges that they had enjoyed since the occupation of Japan, on January 6, 1960, Japanese Foreign Minister Fujiyama Aiichiro and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II initialed several secret agreements which include the ones on bringing in U.S. nuclear weapons into Japan, on the response to an emergency on Korean Peninsula, and on Article 3 of the Japan-U.S. SOFA (a memorandum of secret agreement).

The memorandum of secret agreement on Article 3 of the Japan-U.S. SOFA states, “United States rights within facilities and areas granted by the Government of Japan for the use of United States armed forces in Japan remain the same under the revised wording of Article III, paragraph 1 of the Agreement signed at Washington on January 19, 1960 as they were under the Agreement signed at Tokyo on February 28, 1952.”

This secret agreement proved that the Japanese government intended to guarantee the U.S. forces in Japan “extraterritorial rights” and “unlimited and unconditional authorities” while ostensibly denying the fact.

There are many examples of severe damage caused by the U.S. forces in Japan, including wild fires caused by live-shell firing exercises, abandonment of unexploded bombs, and leaks of chemical materials such as jet fuel and PCB waste. Furthermore, the U.S. forces apparently possess extraterritorial rights because even if a U.S. serviceman commits a crime, when he/she escapes to a base, the Japanese judicial authority can do nothing.

Behind this background, there is the Japan-U.S. secret agreement regarding special U.S. privileges.

(To be continued)