Documents come to light relating to secret nuclear pact between Japan, U.S.

[bemildred]

Source: Xinhua

TOKYO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Documents belonging to the surviving family members of former Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato revealed that an agreement was signed between the Washington and Tokyo that allowed nuclear weapons to come on Japanese soil, according to the Daily Yomiuri newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the document reads, "In order to protect Japan from regional threats, and in the event of acute emergencies, after prior consultation it may be recognized as necessary that atomic weaponry will be accepted in Okinawa. In these circumstances, Washington hopes to receive a favorable answer from Japan," from the United States side of the agreement.

The Japanese response in the agreement reads: "In preparation for acute emergencies, Japan will not delay in responding to this need."

The agreement was signed by former U.S. President Richard Nixonand Sato on Nov. 19, 1969, and was marked "top secret".

Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/22/content_12689732.htm

[Crowman1979]

1. We need an amendment against secret agreements/treaties/pacts.

[pattmarty]

3. I agree, but good fucking luck getting one passed.

[CynicalObserver]

5. Is anyone really surprised a very real strategic contingency such as this was discussed and this

understanding written?

The US and USSR had been just a few mistakes from a nuclear exchange earlier in the decade. Both had a strategic posture and doctrine almost completely oriented on war with the other. Anyone who can read a map and understand that military reality doesn't always match wishful thinking can see that this kind of discussion would have been an obvious point between the two countries (japan and the US). Also worth remembering that if it came to the point where this agreement was activated, one would assume open war had already broken out or was regarded as imminent. The agreement provides a mechanism of letting the US ask permission to put nukes in Okinawa or move them through there.

Are there really people who are surprised that such an agreement would be kept secret????

[Kolesar]

2. US had a "secret surveillance base" in Japan that not even the Japanese could access

It was to monitor the menacing Reds in Kamchatka. This all came to light when Seymour Hirsch wrote "The Target is Destroyed" about the doomed Korean Airlines flight 007.

[Fearless]

4. Really not all that surprizing... and rather tame by our standards.

:banghead: