Documents show secret pact if U.S. troops sent to Korea conflict

Asahi Shimbun

3 days ago

A copy of a U.S.diplomatic cable sent in November 1959 regarding the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty (Provided by Takashi Nobuo)
Declassified U.S. documents show that Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi agreed in the late 1950s to allow the United States to deploy its forces based in Japan in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula without consulting Tokyo.
The documents were U.S. diplomatic cables sent between 1958 and 1960 regarding negotiations for the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty between Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II.
After becoming prime minister in 1957, Kishi called for a more equal relationship with the United States and in revising the security treaty he wanted a prior consultation before U.S. troops based in Japan that could be deployed for missions other than the defense of Japan.
But in July 1959, MacArthur made it clear that the United States could not have a prior consultation with Japan if troops had to be sent immediately in support of U.N. troops if the Korean War resumed.
Kishi faced a dilemma because if Washington was allowed to send troops to the Korean Peninsula without prior notification, it would demonstrate that the two nations were far from the equal status that Kishi argued for.
The Asahi Shimbun was shown copies of the documents found by Takashi Shinobu, a professor emeritus at Nihon University in Tokyo and an expert on the history of Japan-U.S. diplomacy, at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
A document from August 1959 had Fujiyama explaining that he "had very carefully considered' the matter with Kishi. Fujiyama proposed that a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula be made the sole exception to the prior consultation system under the revised security treaty.
Fujiyama pointed out that the notification system would be the most important characteristic that showed the revised security treaty placed the two nations on a more equal footing.
But as negotiations were continuing between Fujiyama and MacArthur, protests broke out in Japan by those who opposed a revision of the security treaty on the grounds it would drag Japan into an American war.
The documents show that in November 1959, Kishi met with MacArthur and expressed fear that the treaty itself would be threatened and his own administration would fall if the issue was handled in the wrong manner.
Kishi had Fujiyama propose an agreement between the two sides on the Korean Peninsula deployment issue in the form of confidential minutes for the first meeting of the security consultative body under the revised security treaty.
Fujiyama and MacArthur reached such an agreement prior to the January 1960 visit by Kishi to the United States to sign the revised security treaty.
The existence of the secret pact came to light after the then Democratic Party of Japan took control of the government in 2009.
A panel of experts determined the agreement on no prior consultation for the deploying of U.S. troops to the Korean Peninsula was the only secret pact clearly agreed to by the two sides.
But although a draft of that pact was uncovered, few documents related to the negotiations that led to that agreement were found in the Foreign Ministry archives.
Nobuo said the lack of documents on the Japanese side was a reflection of the inward-looking stance of Japanese diplomacy that relied on secret pacts to protect the government of that time.