The Democratic Party of Japan-led government effectively dragged the skeletons in the closet of postwar Tokyo-Washington diplomacy out into the light Tuesday, in the process exposing the hollowness of its predecessor administrations' long denials.
Some critics, however, question the timing of the DPJ-initiated panel's report, alleging it is just a further dig at its predecessor in power, the Liberal Democratic Party.
For years, the opposition camp, including the DPJ, had called on LDP-led governments to admit its past leaders had made secret pacts with the U.S. involving atomic arms and the costs covering Okinawa's reversion, but the LDP and the bureaucracy maintained no such shady deals existed.