Text Fwd: Japan "Approved Dropping of Mock Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa"

* Text from Martha Duenas on Jan. 12, 2011

PanOrient News
Japan "Approved Dropping of Mock Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa"
January 9, 2011


Tokyo- (PanOrient News) The Japanese government in the 1970s approved the U.S. forces’ dropping of mock nuclear weapons on Okinawa when its demand for cancellation of such training was rejected by the U.S. side, according to diplomatic documents recently made public by the Foreign Ministry.

The declassified document said that then Defense Agency Director Ezaki Masumi justified that by saying, “It is a matter of course for a nuclear weapon state to carry out nuclear-related training,” Akahata reported.

It added that on March 7, 1972, Japanese Communist Party Member of Parliament Fuwa Tetsuzo, at a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, demanded that the government urge the U.S. forces to stop dropping mock nuclear weapons on Iejima Island in Okinawa. In response to Fuwa, Foreign Minister Fukuda Takeo expressed his intention to have the training cancelled with the return of Okinawa to Japan on May 15, 1972.

After that, a Foreign Ministry official on March 10 explained to U.S. embassy staff Fuwa’s demands in the Diet and called for the training to be cancelled, the document said.

"The Ministry on April 15 received the response from the U.S. side, rejecting its request and expressing its intention to continue the dropping of mock nuclear weapons on Okinawa even after the return of the islands to Japan."

According to Akahata, the Japanese government’s stance changed after that according to Akahata. At the April 28 Upper House Budget Committee meeting, in response to JCP representative Iwama Masao’s questioning, Defense Agency Director Ezaki Masumi stated, “It is a matter of course for a nuclear weapon state to carry out nuclear-related training.”

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* See also the below (* informed by J. D. on Jan. 12, 2011)

Via Linda Hoaglund's blog, Jon Mitchell's latest in The Japan Times

Japan Times
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011
Ex-MP revisits Okinawa's Koza Riot
Bruce Lieber returns on 40th anniversary of the island's largest anti-American disturbance
By JON MITCHELL
Special to The Japan Times