Ohira approved entry of nuclear-armed vessels in 1963

July 31 Kyodo - Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira gave explicit approval in 1963 for U.S. naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japanese ports or pass through Japanese waters, according to newly declassified U.S. government documents.

In an April 4, 1963 meeting with then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer, Ohira said assurances by the United States not to ''introduce'' nuclear weapons in Japan ''would not apply'' to the case of nuclear weapons on U.S. vessels in Japanese ports or waters.

Ohira's remarks were contained in a previously classified telegram sent later the same day by Reischauer to U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk to report what was discussed during the breakfast meeting at the U.S. Embassy residence in Tokyo.

Ohira subsequently served as prime minister from December 1978 to June 1980, when he died at the age of 70.

Suspicions have been raised in a number of documents about the possible entry of nuclear weapons into Japan despite a national policy against it, including an admission made by Reischauer in 1981 that Tokyo had allowed such a practice.

The telegram, however, is the first publicized record of talks between the two officials that set a mutually acceptable definition of the term ''introduce,'' or ''mochikomu'' in Japanese, and essentially laid the basis for accepting the entry of such vessels.

The telegram, released by the U.S. National Archives in October 1998 to Hideki Kan, professor of international studies at Kyushu University, belies the Japanese government's stand that the U.S. cannot bring nuclear weapons into Japan without prior consultation.

According to the five-page document, Reischauer said recent exchanges in the Diet regarding the entry of nuclear-powered submarines into Japanese ports ''had caused me to fear that divergence might be showing between our views'' on defense matters.

He explained that despite a policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons as a precaution against the Soviet Union, Washington has taken the extra step of stating to Japan that no nuclear weapons would be ''introduced'' without prior consultation.

Reischauer stressed, however, that the U.S. understood the word ''introduce'' to imply the deployment or storage of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil and that the Japanese interpretation of the equivalent term ''mochikomu'' was the same.

In response, Ohira was quoted as saying that under this interpretation, the term ''introduce'' would ''not...apply to hypothetical case of nuclears (sic) on vessels in Japanese waters or ports.''

Reischauer, an eminent Japanologist who served as U.S. envoy in Tokyo between 1961 and 1966, quoted Ohira as saying that while Japanese government officials had not used ''mochikomu'' with the same restricted sense in the past, they would do so in the future.

He continued his report by saying that even though Ohira admitted that he and perhaps then Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda did not understand what the U.S. meant by using the word ''introduce,'' he was not surprised by the ambassador's interpretation.

The two sides also agreed that a sudden attempt by the Japanese government to change the meaning or alter its opinions would invite unnecessary attention to the problem.

Ohira then gave assurances that the Japanese government would continue to use the word ''mochikomu'' along the same line as the U.S. government's use of the word ''introduce,'' according to the telegram.

Kan said he also found a related document drafted by the U.S. Defense Department shortly before the Ohira-Reischauer talks regarding the same issue, suggesting that the meeting was held following extensive discussions on the U.S. side.
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It appeared that officials in Washington had become concerned about possible dangers in its military cooperation with Japan in the wake of statements made in March 1963 by Japanese government officials in the Diet that Japan would not allow the entry of nuclear-armed vessels.

During the signing of the Japan-U.S. Mutual Security Treaty in January 1960, the U.S. agreed to hold prior consultations with Japan before introducing nuclear weapons into the country.

The Japanese government continues to insist that no nuclear weapons have been brought into Japan because there have never been any such consultations.

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