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Japan 'sought US nuclear help'

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  • Japan 'sought US nuclear help'

    Japan 'sought US nuclear help'


    In 1965 Japan asked the US to be ready to launch a nuclear attack on China if war broke out between the Asian rivals, documents from the time indicate.

    The documents, declassified by Japan's foreign ministry, summarise talks held during a visit to Washington by Japan's then prime minister, Eisaku Sato.

    Mr Sato won the Nobel peace prize in 1974 for his rejection of nuclear weapons.

    Japan is committed to pacifism under the terms of its post-war constitution.

    It is the only country in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack.

    China test

    Mr Sato projected a strong public stance against nuclear weapons, and formulated Japan's three-point non-nuclear policy which pledged that the country would not produce, possess or allow nuclear weapons on its territory, and which is still adhered to today.

    But the newly declassified documents show that three years earlier and behind closed doors, Mr Sato - Japan's longest serving prime minister - adopted a rather different stance towards nuclear weapons.

    His talks with then US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara took place on 13 January 1965, against the backdrop of China's first successful test of an atomic bomb some months beforehand.

    Neither Japan nor the US had diplomatic relations with China, and in some circles it was viewed as a serious threat.

    According to a summary of their talks, written mostly in Japanese, after mentioning the Chinese test Mr McNamara said a key issue would be whether Japan moved to develop its own offensive nuclear capability.

    In response, Mr Sato told Mr McNamara that while Japan had the technical capability to build atomic weapons, it had no intention of doing so.

    'Retaliate immediately'

    But he added that it would "of course be a different matter in the event of a war", adding "we expect the United States to retaliate immediately using nuclear [weapons]".

    He also said that he would allow the US to use Japanese waters - though not Japanese land - to launch such an attack.

    A day before the discussion, Mr Sato had met US President Lyndon Johnson and asked for a guarantee of protection for his country under the Japan-US security treaty, and received an assurance of Washington's continued commitment to the pact.

    Responding to the revelations, Japan's current Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura defended Mr Sato's moves on the grounds that China had just tested its own nuclear bomb at the time.

    He said Mr Sato's three-point anti-nuclear policy was "determined and steadfast", AFP news agency reported.

    The Chinese foreign ministry issued no immediate comment on the declassified documents.
    sigpic

  • #2
    ao, I don't know that, why japanese was so nervous of china's test of an atomic bomb ?

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    • #3
      You're sh!tting me!

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by xrough View Post
        Japan 'sought US nuclear help'


        In 1965 Japan asked the US to be ready to launch a nuclear attack on China if war broke out between the Asian rivals, documents from the time indicate.

        The documents, declassified by Japan's foreign ministry, summarise talks held during a visit to Washington by Japan's then prime minister, Eisaku Sato.

        Mr Sato won the Nobel peace prize in 1974 for his rejection of nuclear weapons.

        Japan is committed to pacifism under the terms of its post-war constitution.

        It is the only country in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack.

        China test

        Mr Sato projected a strong public stance against nuclear weapons, and formulated Japan's three-point non-nuclear policy which pledged that the country would not produce, possess or allow nuclear weapons on its territory, and which is still adhered to today.

        But the newly declassified documents show that three years earlier and behind closed doors, Mr Sato - Japan's longest serving prime minister - adopted a rather different stance towards nuclear weapons.

        His talks with then US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara took place on 13 January 1965, against the backdrop of China's first successful test of an atomic bomb some months beforehand.

        Neither Japan nor the US had diplomatic relations with China, and in some circles it was viewed as a serious threat.

        According to a summary of their talks, written mostly in Japanese, after mentioning the Chinese test Mr McNamara said a key issue would be whether Japan moved to develop its own offensive nuclear capability.

        In response, Mr Sato told Mr McNamara that while Japan had the technical capability to build atomic weapons, it had no intention of doing so.

        'Retaliate immediately'

        But he added that it would "of course be a different matter in the event of a war", adding "we expect the United States to retaliate immediately using nuclear [weapons]".

        He also said that he would allow the US to use Japanese waters - though not Japanese land - to launch such an attack.

        A day before the discussion, Mr Sato had met US President Lyndon Johnson and asked for a guarantee of protection for his country under the Japan-US security treaty, and received an assurance of Washington's continued commitment to the pact.

        Responding to the revelations, Japan's current Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura defended Mr Sato's moves on the grounds that China had just tested its own nuclear bomb at the time.

        He said Mr Sato's three-point anti-nuclear policy was "determined and steadfast", AFP news agency reported.

        The Chinese foreign ministry issued no immediate comment on the declassified documents.
        Interesting, key figures in the Australian Government were keen on getting nuclear weapons from Britain or developing their own from the fifties to the 70's, according to Richard Broinowski on.....
        http://www.nautilus.org/~rmit/forum-...roinowski.html

        And Wayne Reynolds on.......
        http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/new...reply&p=593341

        Australia's Bid for the Atomic Bomb By Wayne Reynolds Melbourne University Press, 2001 256 pages; $29.95

        AUSTRALIA'S AMBITIONS TO BECOME A nuclear weapon state have been shrouded in mystery--the quest was confusingly entwined with larger issues of defense and economic development, and the government and public debates were dominated by both deliberate and unintended ambiguity. Australia's Bid for the Atomic Bomb by Wayne Reynolds does an exceptional job of lifting the shroud on these ambitions, demonstrating that from the 1940s to the 1960s several key Australian leaders worked to acquire nuclear weapons. Based on a large and disparate body of evidence culled from declassified and open sources, Reynolds reveals that the Australian government hoped to develop its own nuclear weapons capability or obtain weapons from Britain in return for cooperating with Britain's nuclear program.

        Reynolds, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Newcastle, makes a strong case for revisiting the conventional wisdom regarding Australia's broader security policies. Most historians have viewed the fall of Singapore and Australia's subsequent shift of loyalties...


        And by all accounts South Africa had six nuclear bombs & also had a relatively sophisticated intercontinental ballistic missile programme running concurrently with the nuclear programme, and was known to be working on more sophisticated nuclear weapons capable of delivery from such a platform. According to published data one of the missiles, the RSA-4, may have been capable of delivering a 700 kg nuclear warhead from its South African launch site to any point on earth.

        Suppose there were others that could have developed nukes too.

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