Japan Press Weekly

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2010 December 22 - 2011 January 4 [US FORCES]

Japan gave free use of Okinawa in US Vietnam War

Japan gave the green light to the United States at all times when the U.S. forces in Okinawa made sorties to Vietnam even after Okinawan reversion.

The diplomatic notes released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 22 disclosed that the Japanese government expressed such an anytime-is-fine view during negotiations on a joint declaration of Prime Minister Sato Eisaku and President Richard Nixon regarding the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan.

According to the record of a meeting dated June 5, 1969 between then Foreign Minister Aichi Kiichi and U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers, U.S. Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson insisted that their declaration include the phrase that guarantees U.S. forces’ free use of bases in Okinawa in case of an emergency in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, or the Korean Peninsula.

The record further notes that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brown claimed that the Japanese government response should be always “yes” in any “prior consultation”.

Behind this background, there was the U.S. forces’ nonnegotiable demand that Japan allow the U.S. to freely use bases in Okinawa so that the U.S. could make bombing sorties in the Vietnam War.

In accordance with the 1960 revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the Japanese and the U.S. government agreed to hold “prior consultation” in order to maintain a semblance of Japanese sovereignty when the U.S. forces in Japan engage in military operations from bases in Japan unrelated to the defense of Japan.