Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 September 19 - 25 [US FORCES]

Japan-US secret pact lies behind Osprey deployment

A declassified U.S. document indicates the existence of a Japan-U.S. secret agreement behind the government’s stance to press the Osprey deployment on Okinawa under U.S. demand.

The document was a reply from the U.S. Department of Defense on February 12, 1963 to a question from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo about the U.S. legal position regarding the introduction of new equipment to existing U.S. bases in Japan.

The document stresses that it is virtually impossible for Japan to refuse the introduction of military equipment. As the basis, it cites the secret pact regarding prior consultation which the two governments concluded at the time when the revised bilateral security treaty was signed in 1960.

Under the secret agreement, the two nations provided their understanding that only the introduction of nuclear weapons and the construction of bases for such weapons, not the introduction of non-nuclear weapons, shall be the subject of prior consultation concerning major changes in equipment for the U.S. forces in Japan.

The document states that this agreement showed that “it was the intention of the two governments for the Japanese not to have a veto on the introduction of non-nuclear weapons into the existing facilities and areas.”

In short, the U.S. military is allowed to bring to Japan anything aside from nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons systems without receiving approval from the Japanese government.

It is necessary to establish a government which abandons the unequal secret pact and speaks up against the United States based on a position of prioritizing Japanese people’s lives and safety.