The Democratic Party of Japan, the new ruling party that broke 60 years of conservative party domination, will reveal details of a secret agreement between Japan and the U.S. that allowed the U.S. military to bring nuclear weapons into Japan despite an explicit prohibition under Japanese law. Ralph A. Cossa, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Pacific Forum reacted to this announcement by saying: “This is not the type of issue your closest ally forces you to confront publicly…At a minimum, it adds unnecessary friction to the alliance and makes U.S. ship visits, which are now routine, once again a source of contention and a rallying point for protest.”
Actually, secretly bringing in nuclear weapons to the only country that was nuked in war is not the kind of issue you force your closest ally to accept. And if there is anything adding “unnecessary friction” it would be the enormous U.S. military presence and its arrogant behavior in the region, i.e. destruction of an entire farming village in Pyeongtaek, S. Korea to make way for the expansion of a U.S. base, the proposed destruction of Henoko to expand Camp Schwab, the military inundation of Guam and the Northern Marianas despite the smothering impact this will have on Chamoru people, counter-insurgency disguised as “training” in Mindanao. It’s the imperial conduct and secrecy of the U.S. that causes unnecessary friction, not the disclosure of the truth.