Japan Press Weekly

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2011 February 16 - 22 [FOREIGN POLICY]

Gov’t in 1997 lied about secret pact regarding US potential attack on Korea

The Foreign Ministry on November 19, 1997 lied to a Japanese Communist Party Dietmember, saying that the ministry saw no need to obtain documents from the United States about a Japan-U.S. secret pact allowing the U.S. forces in Japan to launch an attack on the Korean Peninsula, though it had obtained the documents in advance in order to deflect parliamentary questions.

The lie came to light by related diplomatic documents made public on February 18 this year.

In 1997, then JCP Secretariat Head Shii Kazuo held a press conference on February 13 to reveal that a secret pact (the Kishi Minute memorandum) existed between Japan and the United States allowing the U.S. forces in Japan to launch an attack on the Korean Peninsula without any prior consultation with Japan. The next day, the Foreign Ministry instructed the Japanese Embassy in Washington to obtain the documents referred to by the JCP, enclosing clippings of the Akahata articles that denounced them.

This response of the Foreign Ministry shows how great was the shock to the ministry that the JCP investigation and Akahata publication caused. The ministry, two days before the Diet interpellation, prepared Q&As for a Foreign Ministry official to claim that no such secret pact existed and thereby that there was no need for the government to request such documents.

This means that the government deceived the general public by concealing the existence of secret pacts and lied in the Diet by hiding the truth from the JCP.

Furugen Saneyoshi, former JCP House of Representatives member who asked questions on the matter in the Diet in 1997, commented to Akahata, “For the sake of maintaining Japan-U.S. relations, the government shows no shame in deceiving the public.” He added, “Nothing has changed with the present Democratic Party of Japan government.”