The U.S. government told Japan in 1970 it was storing chemical arms in Okinawa out of the belief that North Korea possessed similar weapons, according to declassified Japanese diplomatic documents released Thursday.
A secret cable dated Sept. 14, 1970, shows that when Defense Agency chief Yasuhiro Nakasone met U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin Laird that day in the United States, Laird said poison gas was brought into Okinawa in 1962 based on the recommendation of Robert McNamara when he was secretary of defense.
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