The United States in June 1978 instructed its navy to suspend use of a firing range that Japan had provided as a training ground in the Senkaku Islands over fears that it could become embroiled in a Sino-Japanese territorial dispute, according to declassified U.S. government documents.
The documents, obtained by Kyodo News from the U.S. National Archives, also showed that the U.S. government rejected a request from its military the following year to resume use of the firing and bombing range near Taisho Island, known as the Sekibi-Sho Range.
Taisho is part of the Japanese-administered Senkakus in the East China Sea. China claims the Senkakus and calls them Diaoyu.