Related News
Japan confirms secret nuclear pacts with US during Cold War
Source: Agencies |
March 9, 2010, Tuesday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
JAPAN'S Foreign Ministry today confirmed the existence of three Cold War-era secret agreements between its government and Washington that included stipulations allowing the US military to bring nuclear weapons onto its territory.
The public announcement ends a decades-long policy in Japan of keeping the agreements secret from the public. Information about the agreements, however, had already been revealed in the United States more than a decade ago.
One of the pacts, signed in 1960, effectively allowed the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Japan without prior consultation. This overturned previous agreements that had stated that Washington must first speak with Tokyo before bringing in any nuclear weapons, in light of Japanese sentiment after atomic bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of world War II in 1945.
The other two pacts allowed the United States to use its military facilities on Japanese soil in the event of trouble in the United States without prior consultation, and one detailed the distribution of the cost burden between the two nations during the handover of Okinawa in 1972.
The panel investigating the secret pacts concluded that it was "undesirable" that a large portion of the nation's history is made up from overseas records because of the secrecy practiced by previous governments.
It also said that some key documents appeared to have gone missing over the years, amid media reports that an internal order had been given in the past to discard them.
The public announcement ends a decades-long policy in Japan of keeping the agreements secret from the public. Information about the agreements, however, had already been revealed in the United States more than a decade ago.
One of the pacts, signed in 1960, effectively allowed the United States to bring nuclear weapons into Japan without prior consultation. This overturned previous agreements that had stated that Washington must first speak with Tokyo before bringing in any nuclear weapons, in light of Japanese sentiment after atomic bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of world War II in 1945.
The other two pacts allowed the United States to use its military facilities on Japanese soil in the event of trouble in the United States without prior consultation, and one detailed the distribution of the cost burden between the two nations during the handover of Okinawa in 1972.
The panel investigating the secret pacts concluded that it was "undesirable" that a large portion of the nation's history is made up from overseas records because of the secrecy practiced by previous governments.
It also said that some key documents appeared to have gone missing over the years, amid media reports that an internal order had been given in the past to discard them.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
