Japan Declassifies Key Japan-U.S. Diplomatic Papers

Tokyo, July 7 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday
declassified a total of 37 files on the 1960 Japan-U.S. security treaty
revision and the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan from U.S. control, a
move seen to help efforts to examine alleged bilateral secret pacts.
This is the first time diplomatic documents have been made public
under the ministry's new rule that diplomatic papers are to be disclosed in
principle 30 years after they were drawn up.
The declassified documents, which are stored on CD-ROMs, can be
viewed at the ministry's Diplomatic Record Office in Tokyo.
Disclosed are eight files on the revised bilateral security treaty
that were compiled between 1955 and 1960 and 29 files between 1952 and 1972
on the return of Okinawa.
The documents in the files include those on bilateral talks over a
status of forces agreement and on expropriation of Okinawa land for military
use and rent payments.
The ministry keeps about 22,000 files of diplomatic documents that
are subject to declassification under the new rule. It has decided to
disclose those related to alleged secret pacts first.
It plans to disclose other classified documents such as on the 1972
normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China.

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