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{{main|Nuclear and radiation accidents}}
{{main|Nuclear and radiation accidents}}
Complete information surrounding accidents involving nuclear weapons at overseas bases is not generally available via official channels.<ref name="guinea" /><ref name="Kristensen1999" /><ref name="NSA2"/><ref name="Henoko" /> News of accidents on the island usually did not reach much farther than the islands local news, protest groups, eyewitnesses and rumor mills. However, the incidents that were publicized garnered international opposition to chemical and nuclear weapons and set the stage for the [[1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement]] to officially ending the U.S. military occupation on Okinawa.<ref name="Thunder" /><ref name="Perspective">{{cite web|author=Smart, Jeffery K. |title=History of Chemical and Biological Warfare: An American Perspective|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/medaspec/Ch-2electrv699.pdf|accessdate= August 29, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Borden">{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/Portlet.aspx?ID=bddf382f-3ca0-44ba-bd67-fdc48bfa03de |title=Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare |last1=Zajtchuk |first1=Russ |last2= Bellamy |first2=Ronald F. |date= |work=Textbook of Military Medicide |publisher=Office of The Surgeon General, Department of the Army, United States of America|accessdate=April 5, 2013}}{{PD-notice}}</ref><ref name="StarsB52A">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=U.S. Plane Crashes in Okinawa |url= |newspaper=Pacific Stars and Stripes |location=Japan |date=November 19, 1968 |access-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref><ref name="StarsB52B">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Bomber Explodes at Kadena|url= |newspaper=Pacific Stars and Stripes, Okinawa Bureau |location=Okinawa |date=November 20, 1968 |access-date=October 18, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="StarsB52C">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Okinawa Asks B-52 Removal |url= |newspaper=Pacific Stars and Stripes |location=Japan |date=November 21, 1968 |access-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref>
Complete information surrounding accidents involving nuclear weapons at overseas bases is not generally available via official channels.<ref name="guinea" /><ref name="Kristensen1999" /><ref name="NSA2"/><ref name="Henoko" /> News of accidents on the island usually did not reach much farther than the islands local news, protest groups, eyewitnesses and rumor mills. However, the incidents that were publicized garnered international opposition to chemical and nuclear weapons and set the stage for the [[1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement]] to officially ending the U.S. military occupation on Okinawa.<ref name="Thunder" /><ref name="Perspective">{{cite web|author=Smart, Jeffery K. |title=History of Chemical and Biological Warfare: An American Perspective|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/medaspec/Ch-2electrv699.pdf|accessdate= August 29, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Borden">{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/Portlet.aspx?ID=bddf382f-3ca0-44ba-bd67-fdc48bfa03de |title=Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare |last1=Zajtchuk |first1=Russ |last2= Bellamy |first2=Ronald F. |date= |work=Textbook of Military Medicide |publisher=Office of The Surgeon General, Department of the Army, United States of America|accessdate=April 5, 2013}}{{PD-notice}}</ref><ref name="StarsB52A">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=U.S. Plane Crashes in Okinawa |url= |newspaper=Pacific Stars and Stripes |location=Japan |date=November 19, 1968 |access-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref><ref name="StarsB52B">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Bomber Explodes at Kadena|url= |newspaper=Pacific Stars and Stripes, Okinawa Bureau |location=Okinawa |date=November 20, 1968 |access-date=October 18, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="StarsB52C">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Okinawa Asks B-52 Removal |url= |newspaper=Pacific Stars and Stripes |location=Japan |date=November 21, 1968 |access-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref>

On January 18, 1959, a [[North American F-100 Super Sabre]] in ground alert configuration and armed with a nuclear weapon and three external fuel tanks exploded and caught fire at an unnamed U.S. Air Base in the Pacific during a practice alert.<ref name="CDI" /> The fire was reportedly put out within seven minutes and there was apparently no danger to the weapon's [[Pit (nuclear weapon)|nuclear pit]] which was reportedly kept nearby.<ref name="CDI" /> The [[Center for Defense Information]] reported that it is now-known that nuclear-armed F-100 aircraft in the Pacific at that time were based at Okinawa, [[Korea]], [[Taiwan]], [[Philippines]], and [[Thailand]].<ref name="CDI" /> This incident occurred over 50 years ago involving weapons systems that have long-been retired.<ref name="CDI" /> Despite these circumstances, the locations of nuclear weapon accidents at overseas base are rarely specified because diplomatic considerations prevent their disclosure.<ref name="CDI" />


[[File:18-36-3 Nike missile June 1967.jpg|thumb|left|MIM-14 Nike-H missile at Okinawa, June 1967]]
[[File:18-36-3 Nike missile June 1967.jpg|thumb|left|MIM-14 Nike-H missile at Okinawa, June 1967]]

Revision as of 04:14, 7 April 2017

Main articles: Nuclear weapons and the United States, Japan and weapons of mass destruction, and Japan's non-nuclear weapons policy
Weapons of mass destruction
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United States nuclear weapons were stored secretly at bases in throughout Japan following World War II. Secret agreements between the two governments allowed nuclear weapons to remain in Japan until 1972, to move through Japanese territory, and for the return the weapons in time of emergency.

World War II

The intensity of the fighting and the high number of casualties during the Battle of Okinawa formed the basis of casualty estimates projected for the invasion of Japan that led to the decision to launch the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The American landing force received 35% casualties during the Okinawa battle and additional U.S. casualties of between 500,000 to one million were anticipated during an invasion of Japan's home islands.[1] One-third of Okinawa's pre-war population had also been killed. Atomic bombs were deployed in order to avoid what President Truman expressed as the possibility of “an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other.”[1][2]

The atomic age on Japan's southern islands began during the final weeks of the Second World War when the U.S. Army Air Force launched two atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from bases on Tinian in the Marianas Islands. Bock's Car, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber which had just dropped the Fat Man nuclear weapon on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, landed at Yontan Airfield on Okinawa on August 9, 1945.[3]

The U.S. military immediately began constructing additional B-29 bases and specialized facilities for processing strategic nuclear weapons on Iwo Jima[4] and on Okinawa that were scheduled to be completed in September 1945.[5] The new processing facilities would serve to increase the number of available atomic bomb targets in mainland Japan that were within range of the B-29.[5] Ken Nichols, an engineer on the Manhattan Project, revealed that by early August 1945 up to fifteen Fat Man-type atomic bombs were available to support the invasion of Japan should it have taken place.[6]

The surrender of Japan following the atomic bombings prevented an invasion where the U.S. planned to launch widespread chemical warfare against Japan's population[7] as well as the nation's food supply.[8]

U.S post-war strategy towards Japan

As an occasional advisor to the United States Department of War, Edwin O. Reischauer, in a September 14, 1942 Memorandum on Policy towards Japan, wrote that Japanese Emperor Hirohito might be rehabilitated as "valuable ally or puppet in the post-war ideological battle."[9] Historian Takashi Fujitani of the Asian Institute writes that the early "condescension toward Japanese people” and its “purely instrumentalist and manipulative stance” remained the U.S. viewpoint through the Vietnam War.[9]

Reischauer's sentiments, such as the utility of recruiting Japanese-Americans into the U.S. Armed Forces or later, allowing certain additional sovereignty rights in Japan, were frequently challenged by the U.S. military.[9] Reischauer felt there was "no explicit prohibition against nuclear weapons in Japan's Constitution" but expressed that in any negotiation, an exception should continue to be memorialized that would allow the weapons in Japan's southern islands.[9] A “secret action plan” allowed American dollars to covertly support the long-ruling Okinawa Liberal Democratic Party and influence elections.[9] Okinawa was critical to America's Vietnam war effort where commanders reasoned that that, “without Okinawa, we cannot carry on the Vietnam war.”[9]

Written in 1965 while Reischauer was serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, a classified Memorandum of Conversation put forth "a post-reversion U.S. strategy for a permanent American military presence in Okinawa" that included the option to introduce nuclear weapons." The memorandum states that, “if Japan would accept nuclear weapons on Japanese soil, including Okinawa, and if it would provide us with assurances guaranteeing our military commanders effective control of the islands in time of military crisis, then we would be able to keep our bases on the islands, even though ‘full sovereignty’ reverted to Japan.”[9]

Nuclear war planning

In 1948 the JCS approved the first U.S. emergency war plan to combat the Soviet Union. It was then-assumed that some accident or other misunderstanding would prompt a soviet attack in Western Europe. The contingency, called HALFMOON, would require a "nation-killing 'atomic blitz', with 'one-way 'suicide' missions," from U.S. bomber bases, including those in Japan.[1] The plan was was followed by Truman's request for a conventional defense option. Upon the construction of the Berlin Wall several additional nuclear war plans followed employing U.S. Air Force bombers. These plans were opposed by the U.S. Navy who thought bombers were too slow and would be vulnerable to soviet air-defenses.[1]

Strategic Air Command had designated Kadena (as well as a base on the mainland, Yokota Air Base), as a dispersal location for new airborne command post aircraft, codenamed "Blue Eagle", in 1965. The 9th Airborne Command and Control Squadron of the 15th Air Base Wing provided this airborne command and control to Commander in Chief Pacific Command from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, after 1969.[10] Specially-equipped United States Navy C-130s, operating from Japanese bases, enabled the National Command Authority to control Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) processes for theater or general nuclear war. These exercises continued at least into the 1990s.

Secret agreements for nuclear weapon deployment, storage and transit

Secrecy typically surrounds weapons of mass destruction. Revealing WMD can carry severe political complications for policymakers who may face pressure to remove them.[11][12][13][14][15] Unknown to its inhabitants, Okinawa hosted 'hundreds of nuclear warheads and a large arsenal of chemical munitions.'[16]

A TM-72 Mace missile is trucked through the Okinawa city of Gushikawa in the early 1960s in a rare open display.

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, written by MacArthur immediately after the war, contains a total rejection of nuclear weapons. But when the U.S. military occupation of Japan ended in 1951, a new security treaty was signed that granted the United States rights to base its "land, sea, and air forces in and about Japan."[4]

It is true that Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their plutonium and/or uranium cores, and that the nuclear-armed ships were a legal inch away from Japanese soil. All in all, this elaborate strategem maintained the technicality that the United States had no nuclear weapons "in Japan."[4]

In 1959, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi stated that Japan would neither develop nuclear weapons nor permit them on its territory".[4] He instituted the Three Non-Nuclear Principles--"no production, no possession, and no introduction."

But when these non-nuclear principles were being enunciated, Japanese territory was already fully compromised, in spirit if not in letter. Although actual nuclear weapons were removed from Iwo Jima at the end of 1959, Chichi Jima, which had the same legal status, continued to house warheads with their nuclear materials until 1965. And Okinawa, of course, was chock-a-block full of nuclear weapons of all types until 1972. Nuclear-armed ships moored at U.S. Navy bases in Japan, and others called at Japanese ports without restriction...Yet, as compromised as it was, Japan's non-nuclear policy was not wholly fictitious. The Pentagon never commanded nuclear storage rights on the main islands, and it had to withdraw nuclear weapons from Okinawa in 1972...Undoubtedly, Japanese rulers firmly believed that the compromises they made with Washington were necessary for Japanese security during the dark days of the Cold War. Through it all, nonetheless, "non-nuclear Japan" was a sentiment, not a reality.[4]

A 1960 accord with Japan permits the United States to move weapons of mass destruction through Japanese territory and allows American warships and submarines to carry nuclear weapons into Japan's ports and American aircraft to bring them in during landings.[11][17][18] The agreement allows the United States to deploy or store nuclear arms in Japan without requiring the express permission of the Japanese Government. The discussion took place during negotiations in 1959, and the agreement was made in 1960 by Aiichiro Fujiyama, then Japan's Foreign Minister.[17] "There were many things left unsaid; it was a very sophisticated negotiation. The Japanese are masters at understood and unspoken communication in which one is asked to draw inferences from what may not be articulated."[17]

Technicians at work on a Mace B nuclear-armed cruise missile in a hard-site launcher on Okinawa in 1962

The secret agreement was concluded without any Japanese text so that it could be plausibly denied in Japan.[4][17] Since only the American officials recorded the oral agreement, not having the agreement recorded in Japanese allowed Japan's leaders to deny its existence without fear that someone would leak a document to prove them wrong.[17] The arrangement also made it appear that the United States alone was responsible for the transit of nuclear munitions through Japan.[17] However, the original agreement document turned up in 1969 during preparation for an updated agreement, when a memorandum was written by a group of U.S. officials from the National Security Council Staff; the Departments of State, Defense, Army, Commerce and Treasury; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Central Intelligence Agency; and the United States Information Agency.[11][17][18]

A 1963 national intelligence estimate authored by the Central Intelligence Agency, Japans Problems and Prospects stated that:

Continued US administration of Okinawa will probably not become an active political issue in Japan during the next few years. The present government and sophisticated opinion recognize the importance of Okinawa to the defense of Japan and non-Communist Asia. If the Japanese should come to believe that the rights or welfare of the Okinawans were being prejudiced or that the US intended to make the present administrative arrangements permanent, the leftists could whip up popular resentment, and the question of the return of the islands to Japan could become a major issue...[19][20]

Post-war governance of Southern Japanese Island chains

Mark 7 Atomic bomb being readied by the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Kadena Air Base

After the Battle of Okinawa the island was first placed under the control of the United States Navy. Following the surrender of Japan, the U.S military occupied Japan and Okinawa was put under control of the United States Military Government of the Ryukyu Islands on September 21, 1945, and an Okinawa Advisory Council was created. Following the war, the Bonin Islands including Chichi Jima, the Ryukyu Islands including Okinawa, and the Volcano Islands including Iwo Jima were retained under under American control.[4]

In 1952 Japan signed the Treaty of San Francisco that allowed the future control of Okinawa and Japan's southern islands by the United States Military Government (USMG) in post-occupation Japan. The United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR), as part of the Department of Defense, maintained overriding authority over the Japanese Government of the Ryukyu Islands.

Return

The Johnson administration gradually realized that it would be forced to return Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima "to delay reversion of the more important Okinawa bases" however, President Johnson also wanted Japan's support for U.S. Military operations in Southeast Asia."[4] Prime Minister Eisaku Satō and Foreign Minister Takeo Miki had explained to the Japanese parliament that "the return of the Bonins had nothing to do with nuclear weapons yet the final agreement included a secret annex, and its exact wording remained classified." A December 30, 1968, cable from the U.S. embassy in Tokyo is titled "Bonin Agreement Nuclear Storage," but within the same file "the National Archives contains a 'withdrawal sheet' for an attached Tokyo cable dated April 10, 1968, titled 'Bonins Agreement--Secret Annex,'".[4] The Bonin and Volcano islands were eventually returned to Japan in June 1968.[4] On the one year anniversary of a B-52 explosion and near-miss at Kadena Prime Minister Sato and President Nixon met in Washington, DC where several agreements including a revised Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and a formal policy related to the future deployment of nuclear weapons on Okinawa were reached.[21]

A draft of the November 21, 1969, Agreed Minute to Joint Communique of United States President Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Sato was found in 1994. The English text of the draft agreement reads:[21]

United States President:

As stated in our Joint Communique, it is the intention of the United States Government to remove all the nuclear weapons from Okinawa by the time of actual reversion of the administrative rights to Japan; and thereafter the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security and its related arrangements will apply to Okinawa, as described in the Joint Communique. However, in order to discharge effectively the international obligations assumed by the United States for the defense of countries in the Far East including Japan, in time of great emergency the United Stales Government will require the re-entry of nuclear weapons and transit rights in Okinawa with prior consultation with the Government of Japan. The United States Government would anticipate a favorable response. The United States Government also requires the standby retention and activation in time of great emergency of existing nuclear storage locations in Okinawa: Kadena, Naha, Henoko, and the Nike Hercules units...

Japanese Prime Minister:

The Government of Japan, appreciating the United States Government's requirements in time of great emergency stated above by the President, will meet these requirements without delay when such prior consultation takes place. The President and the Prime Minister agreed that this Minute, in duplicate, be kept each only in the offices of the President and the Prime Minister and be treated in the strictest confidence between only the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Japan.

This situation persisted until the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement took effect on May 15, 1972, when the Ryukyu Islands were returned to Japan.[22]

Locations in Japan

A declassified 1956-57 Far East Command manual, Standing Operating Procedures for Atomic Operations, revealed that, there were thirteen locations in Japan that "had "nuclear weapons or their components, or were earmarked to receive them in times of crisis or war." Among the nuclear-capable base locations were Misawa Air Base and Itazuke Air Bases and Yokosuka and Sasebo on U.S. Navy warships that held nuclear weapons. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reveals that the other locations that held nuclear weapons in Japan were Johnson Air Base, Atsugi Air Base, Komaki Air Base, and Iwakuni Air Base.[4]

Southern Japanese Island chains

The island chains were among the thirteen separate locations in Japan that had nuclear weapons.[4] According to a former U.S. Air Force officer stationed on Iwo Jima, the island would have served as a recovery facility for bombers after they had dropped their bombs in the Soviet Union or China. War planners reasoned that bombers could return Iwo Jima, "where they would be refueled, reloaded, and readied to deliver a second salvo as an assumption was that the major U.S. Bases in Japan and the Pacific theater would be destroyed in a nuclear war." It was believed by war planners that a small base might evade destruction and be a safe harbor for surviving submarines to reload. Supplies to re-equip submarines submarines as well as Anti-submarine weapons were stored within caves on Chichi Jima.

Okinawa

Thirty-two Mace Missiles were kept on constant nuclear alert in hardened hangers at four of the island's launch sites.[23][24]

Mark 28 atomic bomb being transported to an F-100 by the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing on Okinawa

The Army's 280mm M65 Atomic Cannon nicknamed "Atomic Annie" and its ammunition were also based on Okinawa.[25] at one point the island hosted approximately 1,200 nuclear warheads.[26] At the time, nuclear storage locations included Kadena AFB in Chibana and the hardened MGM-13 Mace missile launch sites; Naha AFB, Henoko [Camp Henoko (Ordnance Ammunition Depot) at Camp Schwab], and the Nike Hercules units on Okinawa.[21]

North American F-100 Super Sabre fighter-bombers capable of carrying hydrogen bombs were also present.[27]

The Chibana depot held warheads for 19 different atomic and thermonuclear weapons systems in the hardened weapon storage areas.[28][25] The depot held the Mark 28 nuclear bomb warheads used in the MGM-13 MACE cruise missile as well as warheads for nuclear tipped MGR-1 Honest John and MIM-14 Nike-Hercules (Nike-H) missiles.[25]

A MGM-13 MACE B missile launches from silo. Controversy has emerged over whether, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Okinawa-based 873d Tactical Missile Squadron received orders to launch against Sino-Soviet targets.[29]

Nuclear weapons were stored in Henoko at an ammunition depot adjacent to Camp Schwab.[21] The depot was constructed in 1959 for the U.S. Army 137th Ordnance Company (Special Weapons).[21] In July 1967, upon an escalation of the Vietnam War, a proposal to greatly expand the base at Henoko was made by the United States Department of Defense.[30] The plan included construction of an expanded special weapon storage area to house nuclear weapons, a port, and runways adjacent to Camp Schwab.[30] The plan was approved in 1968 by JCS Chairman Earle Wheeler and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, a fact that only came to light in 2016.[31] The plan was not implemented over fears that the required seizure of civilian-owned land would cause protests to erupt as well as a decreased need in the drawn down of the Vietnam War,[30] and budgetary restrictions.[31] After reversion in 1972, Camp Henoko was created when the Army's Henoko Ammunition Storage Depot was turned over to the U.S. Marine Corps's Henoko Navy Ammunition Storage Facilities.[21] The facility is now known as Henoko Ordnance Ammunition Depot. At former nuclear storage areas in Okinawa, including at Henoko, where construction of a proposed air base for the relocation of MCAS Futenma has been planned adjacent to the weapon storage facility, environmental concerns have been raised by the findings of the Environmental Protection Agency of nuclear contamination at other U.S. nuclear weapons sites. The Status of Forces Agreement allows the U.S. military exemptions for environmental protection and remediation.[21] In 1996 unused land inside the former-Chibana, now-Kadena Ammunition Storage Area was offered as a location to move the Futenma facility to.[32] Okinawan's residing near the base munitions area protested those plans and the idea went unrealized.[32] Later that year a location adjacent to the Henoko Ordinance Ammunition Depot at Camp Schwab was selected for the replacement facility.[32]

Alleged nuclear weapons incidents on Okinawa

Main article: Nuclear and radiation accidents

Complete information surrounding accidents involving nuclear weapons at overseas bases is not generally available via official channels.[12][11][15][21] News of accidents on the island usually did not reach much farther than the islands local news, protest groups, eyewitnesses and rumor mills. However, the incidents that were publicized garnered international opposition to chemical and nuclear weapons and set the stage for the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement to officially ending the U.S. military occupation on Okinawa.[28][33][34][35][36][37]

MIM-14 Nike-H missile at Okinawa, June 1967

In June or July 1959, a MIM-14 Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missile was accidentally fired from the Nike site 8 battery at Naha Air Base on Okinawa which according to some witnesses, was complete with a nuclear warhead.[38] While the missile was undergoing continuity testing of the firing circuit, known as a squib test, stray voltage caused a short circuit in a faulty cable that was lying in a puddle and allowed the missile's rocket engines to ignite with the launcher still in a horizontal position.[38] The Nike missile left the launcher and smashed through a fence and down into a beach area skipping the warhead out across the water "like a stone."[38] The rocket's exhaust blast killed two Army technicians and injured one.[38] A similar accidental launch of a Nike-H missile had occurred on April 14, 1955, at the W-25 site in Davidsonville, Maryland, which is near the National Security Agency headquarters at Fort George G. Meade.[39] Newsweek magazine reported that, Kennedy was informed that, "there had been more than 60 accidents involving U.S. nuclear weapons," since World War II, "including two cases in which nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missiles were actually launched by inadvertence."[40][41][42]

On October 28, 1962, during the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. strategic forces were at Defense Condition Two (DEFCON 2). According to missile technicians who witnessed events, the four MACE B missile sites on Okinawa erroneously received coded launch orders to fire all of their 32 nuclear cruise missiles at the Soviets and their allies. Quick thinking by Capt. William Bassett who questioned whether the order was "the real thing, or the biggest screw up we will ever experience in our lifetime” delayed the orders to launch until the error was realized by the missile operations center. According to witness John Bordne, Capt. Bassett was the senior field officer commanding the missiles and was nearly forced to have a subordinate lieutenant who was intent on following the orders to launch his missiles shot by armed security guards. No U.S. Government record of this incident has ever been officially released.[43][44] Former missileers have refuted Bordne's account.[45]

Next, on December 5, 1965, in an incident at sea near Okinawa, an A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft rolled off of an elevator of the aircraft carrier the USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) into 16,000 feet of water resulting in the loss of the pilot, the aircraft, and the B43 nuclear bomb it was carrying, all of which were too deep for recovery.[46] Since the ship was traveling to Japan from duty in the Vietnam war zone, no public mention was made of the incident at the time and it would not come to light until 1981 when a Pentagon report revealed that a one-megaton bomb had been lost.[47] Japan then formally asked for details of the incident.[48]

In September 1968, Japanese newspapers reported that radioactive Cobalt-60 had been detected contaminating portions of the Naha Port Facility, sickening three. The radioactive contamination was believed by scientists to have emanated from visiting U.S. nuclear submarines.[49]

1968 B-52 Crash at Kadena Air Base

Main article: 1968 Kadena Air Base B-52 crash
Thousands of artillery projectiles at Chibana Army Ammunition Depot, February 1969

On November 19, 1968, a U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command B-52D Stratofortress with a full bomb load, broke up and caught fire after the plane aborted takeoff at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa before an Operation Arc Light bombing mission to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War.[50][35] The pilot was able to keep the plane on the ground and bring the aircraft to a stop while preventing a much larger catastrophe.[28] The aircraft came to rest near the edge of the Kadena's perimeter, some 250 meters from the Chibana Ammunition Depot.[50][28]

The crash led to demands to remove the B-52s from Okinawa and strengthened a push for the reversion from U.S. rule in Okinawa.[35][37] Okinawans had correctly suspected that the Chibana depot held nuclear weapons.[28] The crash sparked fears that another potential disaster on the island could put the chemical and nuclear stockpile and the surrounding population in jeopardy and increased the urgency of moving them to a less populated and less active storage location.

Weapon withdrawal

A U.S. policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons was created during the late-1950s when Japan's government asked for a guarantee that U.S. nuclear weapons would not be based "in Japan".[11]

The U.S. eventually revealed the presence of nuclear weapons during negotiations over the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement, which later returned sovereignty to Japan.[51] U.S. government demanded Japan fund the removal of the weapons.[21]

During Okinawa's reversion to Japan in 1972, CINCPAC and the National Security Council (NSC) concluded that Japan's government "tacitly" allowed nuclear weapons to enter Japanese harbors on warships as had been outlined in earlier secret agreements with Japan.[11] The effect of 1971 agreements was that the U.S. would remove nuclear weapons at sites in Japan in exchange for ships with nuclear weapons being permitted to visit ports. Nuclear weapons based on Okinawa were reportedly removed prior to 1972.[11] However, though a diplomatic notification was suggested, permission from Japan was not a requirement for the return of U.S. nuclear weapons.[11] In a 1981 interview, Reischauer confirmed, "U.S. naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons routinely visited ports in Japan with the tacit approval of the Japanese government, violating the LDP’s oft-stated 'three non-nuclear principles' prohibiting their manufacture, possession, or introduction."[9]

When Japan asserted that nuclear weapons must be removed after reversion, they were withdrawn from sites in Okinawa during the early 1970s.[11] Kristensen writes that criticisms following a 1969 Far East visit by a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee prompted the JCS in 1974, to order a study of the forward-deployed tactical nuclear weapons at bases in East Asia. The study found the number of sites could be reduced because they had had more weapons than required as well as that response teams at sites with nuclear weapons were unprepared for a coordinated attack and might be perceived as vulnerable to "terrorists."[11] Following the JCS order, the Department of Defense began withdrawing U.S. tactical nuclear weapons from Taiwan in 1974, and from the Philippines in 1976.[11] Kristensen puts forth the DoD claim that the withdrawal of forward-deployed weapons was 'not simply' due to the sovereignty-return negotiations.[11]

After reversion, the nuclear alert role on Okinawa increased and command and control aircraft continued to operate from the island.[11] The U.S. continues to follow the policy of “neither confirm nor deny” regarding the present location of U.S. nuclear weapons and in many cases, of past locations.[29]

Subsequent developments

Early in March 2010 a Japanese Government inquiry panel revealed the existence of secret agreements for nuclear weapons brought into Japan.[52] The panel findings ended decades of official denial about the secret nuclear agreements in Japan.[53] The Liberal Democratic Party had been in power for the last 50 years.[53] The long-ruling conservatives repeatedly denied the existence of pacts.[54] In an effort by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to restore public trust,[54] The panel was set up by Japan's newly-elected Democratic Party and its creation was motivated by an effort to increase transparency about the secret nuclear agreements with the U.S.[53]

Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada revealed the findings of the panel and admitted that spanning decades, previous governments had lied to the Japanese public about nuclear weapons agreements with the U.S. in violation of the countries non-nuclear principles.[52] The pacts had been kept secret for over five decades over fears of public anger.[53]

The existence of the secret pacts were already an open secret as the deals were already revealed in declassified U.S. files.[53] One of the secret plans secret pact was revealed in 1972 when Takichi Nishiyama, a reporter for Mainichi Daily uncovered one secret pact. He was convicted and jailed for obtaining it.[52]

Four previously secret pacts were released in Japan as part of the announcement.[54] The pacts showed different interpretations between the countries of restrictions and an "unspoken understanding" permitting port calls for warships without prior consent.[54] The announcement revealed that an April 1963 meeting between Reischauer and Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira where a "full mutual understanding" on the "transit issue" was reached.[53] The release also revealed a "vague" secret agreement over Japan's cost burdens for Okinawa's 1972 reversion to Japan.[54]

Hans Kristensen, of the Federation of American Scientists said that at the time the country was facing a difficult decision between national security for Japan under a U.S. nuclear umbrella or telling the public the truth; the decision makers chose to be "economical with the truth."[52] The defense of Japan is a U.S. obligation under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan.[52] Kristensen feels the pacts were unnecessary as U.S. nuclear submarines could have provided nuclear deterrence in the region.[52]

The pacts revealed that nuclear weapons could be returned to Japan during an emergency military crisis in Korea.[55]

In December 2015 the United States Government acknowledged officially for the first time that it had stored nuclear weapons in Okinawa prior to 1972. That U.S. nuclear weapons had been located in Okinawa had long been an open secret. The fact had been widely understood or strongly speculated since the 1960s and was subsequently revealed by the U.S. military in apparently unnoticed photographs of nuclear weapons and delivery systems on Okinawa that were declassified and released to U.S. National Archives in 1990.[29][55][56]

In March 2017 Japan joined the United States and the established nuclear powers under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons who abstained from a negotiation on the total ban of nuclear weapons at the United Nations in opposition to 113 other signatory countries involved in discussion.

References

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