February 7, 2020

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a press conference on February 6 condemned the U.S. deployment of the low-yield nuclear warhead by saying that it goes against the global efforts to achieve a nuclear-free world.

The U.S. Department of Defense two days earlier announced that the U.S. Navy has fielded submarine-launched ballistic missile(s) mounted with the new low-yield nuclear warhead W76-2.

Shii pointed out that the Trump administration in its Nuclear Posture Review in 2018 changed the previous policy to one making the U.S. nuclear arsenal more usable. Shii said that the recently-announced deployment of the new weapon put this policy into concrete shape and made a nuclear use option against non-nuclear nations more realistic for the U.S., which will lead to higher risks of a nuclear war and of more intense nuclear arms races with Russia and China.

In addition, Shii cited the fact that the Japanese government in 1960 made a secret agreement with the U.S. government concerning the possible entry of nuclear bombs onto Japanese territory and that this agreement has yet to be discarded. He warned that under the 2018 NPR, that possibility is now more likely to turn into a reality.

Shii said, “This is a very serious problem. The Japanese government should officially rescind the secret agreement.”

Past related articles:
> Reveal two more documents on secret nuclear pacts [March 31, 2010]
> JCP statement on govt report regarding Japan-U.S. secret pacts [March 10, 2010]