Foreign Ministry officials in 1958 debated the option of acquiring "defensive" nuclear weapons to guard against the Soviet Union amid increasing Cold War tensions and reported their interest to Washington, newly declassified U.S. documents showed Saturday.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II told a meeting on Sept. 9 that year with state and defense department officials in Washington that then-Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi "believed it was essential that Japan have (a) nuclear" arsenal, according to a declassified memorandum, indicating the prime minister clearly conveyed his intentions to the ambassador.
It was widely known that Kishi had said the Constitution "did not prohibit Japan from having any kind of weapons," but the unearthed documents show that Japan actually debated the option of possessing nuclear arms.