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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
The following text makes extensive use of the treasure trove of documents on the US-Japan-Okinawa relationship released by Wikileaks and published in The Asahi Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo in May 2001, setting them in the frame of four decades of chicanery. It also discusses the so-called “mitsuyaku” or secret diplomacy between the two countries that has gradualy come to light in the past two years without any help from Wiki, the “confession” of former Prime Minister Hatoyama, the strange case of the “Maher affair, and the shock waves of recent shifts in thinking about the Okinawa problem in Washington. APJ
A Japanese translation is available here: https://apjjf.org/data/McCormack3532DeceptionJapanese.pdf
1 Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, London and New York, Verso, 2006, (Japanese, Korean, and Chinese translations in 2007 and 2008).
2 I have written at length on these events in previous essays and so here concentrate only on the new insights gained into them by recent revelations.
3 Other secret agreements, not discussed here, included one that the US could enjoy free use of all its bases in the event of renewed war in Korea. (See “Nichibei kaku mochikomi mondai,” Wikipedia, 28 April 2011)
4 “Ex-negotiator: Cost to remove U.S. nukes from Okinawa exaggerated to dupe public,” Asahi shimbun, 13 November 2009.
5 For details, see my 2010 essays on this site.
6 In Confidential Despatch of 19 December 2008, part 1, Jim Zumwalt, Deputy Head of Mission, Wikileaks, released 4 May 2011.
7 “The Battle of Okinawa 2009: Obama vs Hatoyama,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, 16 November 2009.
8 Shinohara Hajime, “Toranjishon dai ni maku e,” (interview) Sekai, November 2010, pp. 85-92.
9 For details, see my earlier essays at The Asia-Pacific Journal, especially the three part “Ampo's Troubled 50th: Hatoyama's Abortive Rebellion, Okinawa's Mounting Resistance and the US-Japan Relationship,” of May 2010.
10 Various senior Japanese officials, quoted in Ambassador Roos, “secret” despatch, 15 October 2009. Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
11 Saiki Akitaka, Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking to Kurt Campbell Assistant Secretary or State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, on 18 September 2009, in Roos, 21 September 2009. Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
12 Izawa Osamu, foreign policy assistant to Hatoyama, quoted in Raymond Greene, confidential, 5 October 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
13 Takamizawa Nobushige, Director-General of Defence Policy at Ministry of Defence, over lunch with US officials, 12 October 2009, quoted in Roos, secret, 15 October 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
14 Nagashima Akihisa, Parliamentary Vice Minister at Ministry of Defence, speaking to Okinawan Consul-General Raymond Greene, 30 September 2009, in Greene, confidential, 5 October 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
15 Yamaoka Kenji, quoted in Ambassador Roos, confidential despatch of 9 December 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
16 Ibid.
17 Quoted in Ambassador Roos, secret despatch, 16 December 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
18 Ambassador Roos, secret despatch, 30 December 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
19 “The truth behind Japan-US ties (3) Numbers inflated in Marine relocation pact to increase political impact,” Asahi shimbun, 4 May 2011, and see Zumwalt, confidential despatch, 19 December 2008, parts 1 and 2, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
20 Zumwalt, op. cit.
21 Zumwalt, op. cit.
22 On Gates visit, see my “Ampo's Troubled 50th: Hatoyama's Abortive Rebellion, Okinawa's Mounting Resistance and the US-Japan Relationship,” and on Campbell, Ambassador Roos, Secret despatch, 15 October 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
23 Ambassador Roos, Confidential despatch, 9 December 2009, Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
24 Ambassador Roos, Secret despatch, 10 December 2010. Wikileaks, 4 May 2011.
25 For Hatoyama's “confession,” see “Interview, The Hatoyama revelations,” Ryukyu shimpo, 13 February 2011. Satoko Norimatsu, “Hatoyama's Confession: The Myth of Deterrence and the Failure to Move a Marine Base outside Okinawa,” The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus, 8 March 2011. Unabridged text at, “Hatoyama zenn shusho intabyu@giin kaikan,” 31 January 2011.
26 The phenomenon Hatoyama describes will be recognizable to historians as gekokujo, by which during the rise of fascism and militarism junior officers and officials rebelled against their superiors and usurped authority from them.
27 The US Embassy in Tokyo reported that, “The Japanese side … registered frustration with over two years of U.S. inability to provide more detailed data on the actual number of dependents … that will relocate to Guam, and voiced suspicion that the U.S. intends to hold on to excessive housing in Okinawa and force Tokyo to build more housing in Guam than is required.” (Zumwalt, op. cit.)
28 “Leaked documents reveal shocking Japan-US diplomacy,” Asahi shimbun, 5 May 2011.
29 “Kichi iten no jittai kakusu ‘mitsuyaku’,” Okinawa taimusu, 5 May 2011.
30 “Gaiko koden bakuro – seifu ni kosho no shikaku nashi – taisei, atarashi shikirinaoshi o,” Ryukyu shimpo, 5 May 2011.
31 “Kengai isetsu e jikko keikaku, Chiji, nendonai ni mo sakusei,” Okinawa Taimusu, 29 December 2010.
32 “Kan naikaku to Okinawa ‘kanju seyo’ to semaru oroka,” Tokyo shimbun, 23 December 2010.
33 For text of Maher's 3 December talk, see “Mea shi kogi memo zenbun,” Ryukyu shimpo, 8 March 2011.
34 David Vine (offering several additional glosses on the Maher talk), “Smearing Japan,” Foreign Policy in Focus, 20 April 2011.
35 “Mea shi zekka shinjirarenai bujoku hatsugen,” Okinawa Taimusu, 7 March 2011.
36 “‘Nichibei kyokucho kyu kaigi’ konna toki ni ‘Henoko’ ka,” Okinawa taimusu, 10 March 2011.
37 “‘Mea shi kotetsu’ - rakuchaku ni wa naranai,” Okinawa taimusu, 11 March 2011.
38 “Mea shi sabetsu hatsugen, kainin shi Bei no ninshiki aratameyo, yuganda Okinawa kan o toei,” Ryukyu shimpo, 8 March 2011.
39 “Mea shi kotetsu, Futenma tekkyo e no tankan da, tsuyo senu ame to muchi,” Ryukyu shimpo, 11 March 2011.
40 “Mea shi machigaenaku hatsugen, Bei jun kyoju ga zai hanron,” Ryukyu shimpo, 17 April 2011. And see “US official responds to Okinawa flak,” Wall St Journal Online, Japan edition, 14 April 2011.
41 Josh Rogan, “State Department Japan hand loses post as Campbell goes on Tokyo apology tour,” The Cable, 9 March 2011.
42 The board of New Magellan Venture Partners, NMV Consultancy, founded by Richard Lawless, former Deputy Defense Minister, includes other retired senior military and bureaucratic figures and offers “deep expertise in the defense and aerospace; transportation; energy; mineral resource; property development and high-technology sectors.” See [NMV Consulting: Welcome] and [NVM Consulting: Kevin K. Maher]. (accessed 12 May 2011).
43 “Mea shi, minkan de kaku nenryo mondai o tanto, sabutetsuteki hatsugen de kotetsu,” Tokyo shimbun, 12 May 2011.
44 Yonamine Michiyo, “Economic crisis shakes US forces overseas: The price of base expansion in Okinawa and Guam,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, 28 February 2011.
45 “Open letter, to Mr. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,” April 27, 2011. editorial, Ryukyu shimpo.
46 “Senators Levin, McCain, Webb Call for Re-Examination of Military Basing Plans in East Asia,” press release, 11 May 2011.
47 Senator Jim Webb, “Observations and Recommendations on US Military Basing in East Asia, May 2011. Note that the “Kadena merger “idea seems to stem from a suggestion made by Shimoji Mikio, People's New Party Okinawan Diet representative. Shimoji, the sole Okinawan Diet member prepared to contemplate a Futenma replacement facility in the prefecture, exercises considerable influence among Japanese and American officials who want to believe that he represents a “realist “strain of thinking. (”Futenma isetsu Bei ni “san nen kigen' Shimoji shi Nihon e no dentatsu yobe,” Ryukyu shimpo, 7 May 2011.).
48 Levin, McCain, Webb press release, cit
49 “Zen Bei daitoryo hosakan ga Henoko isetsu o nanshi,” Okinawa taimusu, 8 May 2011.
50 Gerald Curtis, “Future directions in IUS-Japan Relations,” Background paper for the “New Shimoda Conference,” February 2011.
51 For discussion of the various Washington policy think-tank reports of 2000 and 2007 identified with Joseph Nye and Richard Armitage in particular, see especially my “The Travails of a Client State: An Okinawan Angle on the 50th Anniversary of the US-Japan Security Treaty,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, 8 March 2010.
52 Christopher Hughes, “Japan's foreign policy for a new age: realistic realism,” Asahi shimbun, 26 February 2011
53 “Editorial: Leaked documents reveal shocking Japan-U.S diplomacy,” Asahi shimbun, 6 May 2011.
54 See the series “‘Futenma’ koden o toku,” Ryukyu shimpo, 7-11 May 2011. Other articles in the series are by Sato Manabu of Okinawa International University and Ota Masahide, former Governor of Okinawa.
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