Declassified U.S. documents show U.S. bringing nuclear weapons into Japan

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Declassified U.S. documents show U.S. bringing nuclear weapons into Japan

A declassified U.S. government document testifies to the fact that U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear weapons repeatedly entered Japanese ports in accordance with a secret nuclear agreement between Japan and the U.S.

"No statement was made or implied to the Foreign Minister that U.S. naval vessels in <deleted> ports carried or would carry nuclear weapons, but they have in fact periodically done so."

This is a part of the previously Top Secret draft "Compendium of Nuclear Weapons Arrangements" that the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense released on October 8, 1968, which put together the arrangements with 22 countries regarding the bringing in of U.S. nuclear weapons.

Although specific country names were deleted from the document, William Burr of the Washington, D.C. based National Security Archives that made public the documents in August pointed out that five pages of the document clearly referred to the arrangement with Japan.

Fuwa Tetsuzo, then Japanese Communist Party chair, repeatedly used his Diet questions in 2000 to point to the Japan-U.S. secret agreement that allowed the bringing in of U.S. nuclear weapons into Japan, showing declassified U.S. government documents. The document the NSA has released backs up Fuwa's assertions.

On the occasion of revising the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty in 1960, Japanese Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke and U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter exchanged notes stating that "major changes in equipment" of U.S. forces in Japan will be addressed by prior consultation.

However, just before the signing of the new treaty, both governments agreed on a secret arrangement that allowed the bringing in of nuclear weapons to Japan. The whole text of the secret document was titled "Record of Discussion."

The document the NSA released referred to the "Record of Discussion" several times in the part concerning Japan, though the name of Japan was deleted.

Exactly in accordance with what the "Record of Discussion" stipulated, the newly released document confirmed the core of the matter, stating, "There was common understanding that the prohibition against 'introduction' without prior consultation ... did not refer to the case of nuclear weapons on a U.S. vessel entering <deleted> waters or ports."

At the same time the document states, "Unfortunately, judging from public <deleted> statements, these interpretations of the Record of Discussion were not automatically passed from one Administration to the next. In January 1968, preceding the visit of the <deleted>..."

This passage indicates that the Japanese and U.S. governments reaffirmed the secret agreement just before the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise's visit to Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture in January 1968.
- Akahata, September 7, 2006