December 11, 2006

On this day in 1967, at a meeting of the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Sato Eisaku announced the three policies that have guided Japan’s policy on nuclear weapons to this day. Japan would not possess, produce, or play host to nuclear weapons.

“My responsibility is to achieve and maintain safety in Japan under the Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons, in line with Japan’s Peace Constitution.”

The principles did not arise in a vacuum, of course, nor were they simply a delayed reaction to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II, although the bombings certainly played an important role in placing public opinion in Japan firmly on the side of opposition to nuclear weapons.

In his campaign for the Prime Minstership prior to his first term, Sato had pledged to reacquire Okinawa, then still under the control of the United States. While public opinion was in favor of the reacquisition, the public was also deply concerned about the nuclear weapons the US had positioned in the archipelago. This duality threatened Sato’s ability to follow through on his campaign pledge.

Sato himself was worried that an outright prohibition on nuclear weapons would severely hamper Japan’s defense. He had to quell public fears and reach an agreement with the Americans on Okinawa’s reintegration into Japan, though. To accomplish the former, Sato announced the the Three Non-Nuclear Principles that had been first elucidated by Defense Agency Director-General Masuda Kanehichi in May of that year to lawmakers and, hence, the public.

The Three Principles do not stand alone, though. In February of 1968, Sato made the Three Principles the fourth pillar of Japan’s Four-Pillars Nuclear Policy, the first three being “To promote the peaceful use of nuclear power; To work toward global nuclear disarmament, and; To rely on the extended US nuclear deterrent.” Japan would abide by the Three Principles “under the circumstances where Japan’s national security is guaranteed by the other three policies.”

In other words, Sato left the Government with ample wiggle room, thus avoiding the hamstringing of the Defense Agency that he feared.

The Four Pillars of Japanese policy were quite similar to the Three Pillars of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, into which Sato brought Japan, thus appeasing the US, paving the way for a nuclear-free Okinawa under Japanese control, and earning himself the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Japan ratified the NPT in 1976.

While never made law, the Three Principles were formally adopted by the Diet in 1971, reaffirmed by Sato himself in his 1974 Nobel lecture, and have been reiterated by each of his successors.

The wiggle room allowed by Japan’s nuclear policy has not been forgotten, though, as is in evidence with the pushes for debate on the issue that have been coming from high-ranking Diet members and Cabinet officials, such as Foreign Minister Aso Taro in the wake of North Korea’s October 9th nuclear test.

Ah, peace.