OSAKA -- On Nov. 19, 1953, then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon mounted the podium at a special meeting of the Japan-America Society in Tokyo.

Just over four months had passed since the Korean War had ended in an uneasy truce. During the course of the war, Japan, despite its constitutional limitations, provided the U.S. with supplies and -- it would later be shown in declassified U.S. documents -- covert military aid in sweeping Korean harbors for mines.

Yet Nixon did not use his speech that day to serve up just another round of platitudes. He startled the audience by declaring that Article 9 of Japan's postwar Constitution, effectively written by a small group of liberal-minded Americans and approved by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as head of the U.S.-led Occupation, had been a mistake.