Straits' slim limits set to let U.S. nukes pass

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

Straits' slim limits set to let U.S. nukes pass
Kyodo News

Japan decided in the 1970s to set narrow territorial limits on five key straits to allow passage of U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons, a former envoy who represented Japan at U.N. talks on international maritime law said in a recent interview.

Some of the U.S. submarines that passed through Japanese territorial waters or called at Japanese ports during the Cold War were carrying nuclear weapons, said Shigeru Oda, who represented Japan during talks on the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea. Oda said the decision to let them pass was a political one.

Countries involved in the 1973-1982 talks agreed to allow territorial waters to be set at a maximum of 12 nautical miles (22 km) from shore.

Under the Territorial Waters Act that took effect in 1977, Japan expanded its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles from the previous limit of 3 nautical miles (5.6 km).

But the limits on Japan's territorial waters in the Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, Tsushima and Korea straits were mysteriously left unchanged at 3 nautical miles.

The Foreign Ministry demanded that Oda not disclose how and why the decision was made in a book he was writing after leaving the ministry in 1976, he said, adding he eventually gave in to the demand.

He went on to become a judge at the International Court of Justice that year and served until 2003.

"The Tsugaru Strait would have become Japan's territorial waters (if the limit was expanded to 12 nautical miles)," Oda, 84, said.

"In order to say 'no bringing in nuclear weapons' and 'submarines must surface when passing through Japan's territorial waters,' you could not make the limit 12 nautical miles," he said, referring to the three nonnuclear principles of prohibiting possession, production or introduction of nuclear arms on Japanese territory.

Japan needed to keep the limits in the five straits at 3 nautical miles so it could deny that U.S. ships or subs with nuclear weapons were plying official Japanese waters, he said.

Official U.S. documents and testimony from people involved with the issue have already confirmed that Japan voluntarily chose to set narrow limits on the straits and that pressure from the United States was involved in the matter.