For the first time, a former high-ranking diplomat testified in court on Tuesday that secret pacts existed between Japan and the United States over the May 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan.
On behalf of a group of citizens seeking disclosure of three diplomatic documents related to the reversion, Mr. Bunroku Yoshino, former director of the Foreign Ministry's American Bureau, told the Tokyo District Court that the two countries concluded secret pacts under which Japan agreed to shoulder the burden of not only $16 million to move a Voice of America relay station abroad, but also $4 million that the U.S. was supposed to pay to help restore U.S. military areas to farmland.
It is hoped that his testimony will give impetus to efforts to uncover hidden aspects of diplomatic negotiations over the reversion. Until recently, the Japanese government denied the existence of secret pacts. But Mr. Yoshino testified that the initials "BY" on documents — photocopies of which were discovered in the U.S. in the early 2000s — were his.