Ex-bureaucrat admitted gov`t lied about Japan-U.S. nuclear accord

TOKYO, Jan. 22 Kyodo -
A former vice foreign minister admitted that the government had lied when it
said the United States is obliged to hold consultations with Tokyo before U.S.
military vessels carrying nuclear weapons make stopovers in Japan or pass
through Japanese territorial waters, a researcher said Friday.
The government, then led by the Liberal Democratic Party, lied in an attempt to
evade grilling by opposition parties, former Vice Foreign Minister Hisanari
Yamada said in an interview on Oct. 14, 1981, Yoshihisa Hara, a professor at
Tokyo International University, said in revealing the existence of an audiotape
of the interview he held with the now deceased bureaucrat.
The existence of the tape could impact discussions of a Foreign Ministry panel
of experts investigating secret pacts between Japan and the United States.
The government had said in the Diet that prior consultations were required
under a bilateral security treaty covering the passage and stopover of U.S.
military vessels carrying nuclear weapons.
But such passage and stopovers would be given tacit approval by Tokyo under a
secret bilateral pact, according to the interview with Yamada, who served as
vice foreign minister at the time the secret pact was agreed in 1960.
According to a U.S. document that has been made public, Japan and the United
States agreed on the secret pact when the bilateral security treaty was revised
in 1960. The pact effectively allowed the United States to introduce nuclear
weapons into Japanese territory. Yamada was involved in recording the minutes
of discussions on the secret agreement.
A former senior Foreign Ministry official has said that Japan and the United
States had disagreed over what should be subject to prior consultation.
But Yamada's statement indicates that under the secret pact, there was no
difference between Japan and the United States over the interpretation of
matters requiring prior consultation.
Referring to the negotiations for the 1960 signing of the revised bilateral
security treaty, Yamada said how to deal with the passage and stopovers of U.S.
military vessels carrying nuclear arms had never been on the agenda.
The requirement for prior consultation covered ''bringing large nuclear weapons
onto Japanese soil'' and the passage and stopovers of U.S. military vessels
carrying nuclear weapons do not require such consultations, Yamada said in the
interview.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer stated in 1981 that the
transit of a nuclear-armed U.S. vessel was not considered to constitute an
introduction of nuclear weapons as he confirmed the notion with the Japanese
side in 1963 when he met then Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira.
Asked by Hara if Reischauer's remarks on the issue were right, Yamada answered,
''That is exactly right.''
Hara also asked Yamada whether the Foreign Ministry had included passage and
stopovers as matters requiring prior consultation in its mock
question-and-answer sheet to counter opposition parties during Diet sessions.
Yamada admitted that the ministry had done so and said, ''We had never thought
transit should be subject to prior consultation,'' according to Hara.
The secret deal contradicts Japan's three principles of not possessing,
producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into its territory.
However, Yamada said in the interview that the government did not ponder such
unrealistic principles at the negotiation table of the security treaty
revision.
The current government led by the Democratic Party of Japan has looked into
secret pacts with the United States, including the nuclear deal, since it was
launched last fall.
==Kyodo