記事：Seoul, Taipei wanted nukes in Okinawa

Seoul, Taipei wanted nukes in Okinawa

Thursday, Nov. 22, 2007

Return islands to Japan but stay strong for Cold War, they told U.S.

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) South Korea and Taiwan urged the United States in the late 1960s to return Okinawa to Japan but keep its forces there nuclear-capable in the event of a crisis in East Asia, according to recently declassified U.S. government documents.

News photo
Prime Minister Eisaku Sato chats with President Richard M. Nixon at the White House in November 1969. During the meeting, the U.S. agreed to return Okinawa to Japan, which took place in 1972. KYODO FILE PHOTO

The documents, found at the U.S. National Archives by Yasuko Kono, a professor of Japanese political and diplomatic history at Hosei University in Tokyo, show that some of the well-known U.S. reluctance in those days to return Okinawa without keeping its forces there nuclear-capable was in part due to demands from Seoul and Taipei, which at the time faced threats from the Soviet Union, China and North Korea.

Despite the South Korean and Taiwanese objections and the U.S. reluctance, Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972 after Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and U.S. President Richard Nixon agreed on Nov. 21, 1969, on its return with the U.S. giving up the right to use military bases in the prefecture as it saw fit, including maintaining atomic arsenals, as was the case during the occupation period.

But Sato and Nixon are believed to have secretly agreed to allow U.S. nuclear weapons to be brought in during emergencies in return for Okinawa's reversion, but not permanently kept at U.S. bases in the prefecture.

A Central Intelligence Agency document dated April 12, 1969, showed that South Korea in its aide memoire to the U.S. ambassador to Seoul voiced "concern" about Okinawa's return.

"Seoul is showing concern that the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control may impair the usefulness of U.S. bases there for the defense of (South) Korea," it said.

An aide memoire handed to the U.S. ambassador to Seoul on April 8 "asserts that the island's 'indispensable' role in the defense of the area makes its disposition a matter of concern to more than just the U.S. and Japan," it added.

A State Department document of Sept. 12, 1967, said Foreign Minister Wei Tao-ming of Taiwan ― which at the time the U.S., Japan and many other countries recognized as a sovereign nation ― warned two U.S. government officials on May 15 that year against "any change" in Okinawa's status.

Any U.S. military withdrawal from Okinawa resulting from the island's reversion to Japan "would cause serious strategic and military problems for Taiwan," he was quoted as saying.

The document said Taiwan's "primary concern appears to be the possibility of a weakening of Taiwan's security" if Okinawa was returned to Japan and the U.S. military bases there were dismantled.

A confidential telegram the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo sent on Nov. 6, 1969, to U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers showed a senior South Korean official relaying Seoul's concern about Okinawa becoming a nuclear-free island to a Japanese diplomat the day before.

"Defense of ROK (Republic of Korea) would be substantially affected" if postreversion Okinawa has the same status for military bases as Japan's main islands, "including exclusion of U.S. nuclear weapons and restraints on use of U.S. aircraft," it said.

Apparently reflecting the South Korean and Taiwanese views, a joint statement issued by Sato and Nixon after their talks 38 years ago said that while Okinawa would be returned to Japan nuclear-free, South Korean and Taiwanese security was vital to Japan's own security.

The Japan Times on;ine, Nov. 22, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20071122a4.html