JCP representative in Diet urges government to make public secret nuclear agreement with U.S.

Japan Press Weekly

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JCP representative in Diet urges government to make public secret nuclear agreement with U.S.

At the House of Councilors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense meeting on July 7, Japanese Communist Party representative Inoue Satoshi urged Foreign Minister Nakasone Hirofumi to make public all hidden documents related to the policy of allowing U.S. military aircraft and warships carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japanese sea ports or airports.

Inoue cited remarks of Nakasone Yasuhiro (the father of the Foreign Minister) virtually acknowledging that nuclear weapons can be brought into Japan when in transit.

Nakasone made the remarks in talks with Fuwa Tetsuzo, former Japanese Communist Party chair, in the July 19 issue of the Weekly Sunday Mainichi. In the talks Nakasone said, "I have never seen the original text of the secret agreement on nuclear weapons. But it is normal to assume that nuclear weapons-carrying ships can enter Japanese ports in transit or navigate Japanese territorial waters." He also said that the government officials' explanation is "estranged" from reality.

Foreign Minister Nakasone gave the same answer as the government has done in parliament, that there is no such document of a secret agreement with the United States.

Nakasone Yasuhiro also said, "It is unthinkable that U.S. military ships will remove their nuclear weapons when they enter Japanese ports."

Inoue cited the "record of discussion", a secret agreement between Japan and the United States reached in 1960 when the old Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised, which states that the Japanese government keeps a copy of the record. After obtaining a copy of the "record of discussion" in the Untied States, the JCP revealed this in 2000 in the Diet.

Inoue stated that this fact has been confirmed by a former vice foreign minister who testified that a copy of this secret nuclear pact, the same as the original text, has been kept in the Foreign Ministry.

The former top foreign ministry official is one of four former vice foreign ministers who testified to the existence of the secret nuclear pact in an interview with Kyodo News early in June.

Inoue quoted the declassified U.S. document as saying that regarding the unsuccessful handover of the 1960 secret nuclear pact among successive Japanese governments as serious, then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer reminded then Foreign Minister Ohira Masayoshi that secret arrangements had been made.

According to Kyodo News, three former vice foreign ministers revealed that the record of the Reischauer-Ohira talks has been kept in the ministry.

Inoue demanded that the foreign ministry submit copies of the "record of discussion" and the record of the Reischauer-Ohira talks.

Foreign Minister Nakasone reiterated the Japanese government's conclusion is that there has been no such a pact.

JCP lawmaker Inoue maintained, "There is no alternative for the government but to reveal the secret pact and then take steps to rescind it."

- Akahata, July 8, 2009