Investigative team on `secret pact` issue launched

TOKYO, Sept. 25 Kyodo -
The Foreign Ministry launched a team Friday to look into purported Japan-U.S.
secret pacts based on an order from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, who
apparently hopes to demonstrate enhanced transparency in diplomacy after the
change of government.
The outcome of the investigation, expected to be issued by the end of November,
could lead the government to admit the existence of such alleged decades-old
secret pacts in a landmark reversal of the stance of earlier administrations.
A total of four secret pacts are subject to investigation -- two related to the
revision of the Japan-U.S. security treaty in 1960 and two related to the 1972
reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty from U.S. control. Official U.S.
documents and testimony from people involved in the issue have already
confirmed their existence.
Among the four pacts, an alleged 1960 deal, under which Japan allowed stopovers
of nuclear-armed U.S. vessels, drew renewed attention earlier this year after
former Japanese vice foreign ministers told the media that the information had
been passed down to key bureaucrats and managed by them.
By delving into the issue, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan apparently
hopes to highlight its differences from past governments led by the Liberal
Democratic Party, which have consistently denied the existence of any secret
deal.
Okada, who is visiting New York to attend a series of international events,
reiterated his determination to get to the bottom of the issue, telling
reporters Thursday, ''I would like to reveal all the things (related to the
issue) from now.''
Under the nuclear deal, which the two countries agreed on in revising the
Japan-U.S. security treaty in 1960, Tokyo would allow stopovers of U.S.
military vessels or aircraft carrying nuclear weapons, though the treaty
requires Washington to hold prior consultations with Tokyo before bringing
nuclear weapons into Japan.
The issue is a sensitive one for Japan, the only country that has suffered
nuclear attacks. The secret pact would also contradict Japan's three principles
of not possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons
into Japan, which were first announced in 1967 by then Prime Minister Eisaku
Sato.
The Japanese government has said that such ''prior consultations'' have not
taken place and thus that nuclear weapons have not been introduced into Japan.
The focus of the investigation will be whether the ministry possesses documents
that prove the alleged secret pact signed in 1960.
The investigation team is formed of about 15 members, including those called
back from overseas diplomatic establishments, according to the ministry's press
release.
The team will examine 2,694 files on Japan-U.S. security issues and about 571
files related to the reversion of Okinawa that remain in the ministry. About
400 files in the Japanese Embassy in the United States will also be examined,
the press release said.
But the task may not be easy amid speculation that related documents kept in
the ministry were discarded before an information disclosure law came into
effect in Japan in April 2001.
Even if the government confirms the existence of the secret pacts, Okada has
indicated he will not punish senior Foreign Ministry officials in connection
with the issue.
Okada may also be aiming to spur national discussion over Japan's security,
which relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection -- a policy some argue
contradicts the nonnuclear principles.
Of the remaining three secret pacts, one is related to the use of U.S. military
bases in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula, another to the
bringing of nuclear weapons into Okinawa in times of emergency, and the
remaining one is over the cost burden for the 1972 reversion of Okinawa.
==Kyodo