RET A-BOMBS STORED IN JAPAN

A former United States Air Force sergeant has caused a storm of criticism against the Japanese government by revealing that nuclear weapons have long been based in Japan together with troops trained to operate them. The question of nuclear weapons is ultra-sensitive in Japan where two atomic weapons were used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Under the US-Japanese security treaty of 1958, the Americans are obliged to consult the Japanese government before introducing nuclear weapons into the country.

The 36-year-old former GI, Al Hubbard, was a mastersergeant in the US Air Force stationed at Tachikawa air base from 1963 to 1965. His job as flight navigator involved transporting nuclear weapons to various US bases America, Europe and Asia, using C124 planes.

Altogether he flew more than 200 missions with nuclear weapons. More than 20 of these missions were to the Yokota, Misawa, Johnson and Kadena air bases in Japan.

The nuclear weapons were of two kinds. One was about 12 feet long and five feet high, called the B43, and the other was contained in a cage called the 'bird cage' about two feet high. He said that as a flight engineer he had not been in a position to know whether the weapons were stored in Japan after delivery.

Hubbard, who is now active in the anti-war movement, made his shock revelation at a rally organized to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Al Hubbard: US H-bomb explosion at Bikini Atoll, which poisoned crew members of the Japanese fishing boat 'Lucky Dragon' US military spokesmen declined to comment Hubbard's charge. Capt Tony Brown, public relations director at the Yokota base, said the report was incredible. He said he had never heard that nuclear weapons had been brought to the base. At Misawa and Kadena bases, however, the authorities kept their mouths shut. One official said he would like to study the context of the remarks.

Later the US embassy produced an unconvincing denial. It said the US had never violated the prior consultation agreement concerning the transport of nuclear weapons, although the embassy refrained from contradicting the detailed charges made by Hubbard.

This implies that nuclear weapons were brought in with the connivance of the Japanese government. Indeed Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. himself said that he was convinced the US would not attempt to bring in nuclear weapons without prior notice to the government.

Opposition deputies in the Diet (parliament) grilled Foreign Minister Takeo Fukuda last week on the charges raised by Hubbard. Socialist Party deputy Yanosuke Narazaki told the Diet that nuclear troops were stationed at a fifth base in Iwakuni equipped with nuclear weapons, though the Us authorities claimed they were only undergoing training. "The US military has admitted that nuclear troops were stationed at the Iwakuni base, but said they were merely undergoing training;' Narazari said. 'But actually they are not merely undergoing training. They are combat troops.' He added that US troops were also undergoing nuclear weapons training at other bases in Japan.

Defence bureau director Takuya Okubo said he had no knowledge of such troops stationed • at US bases. Narazaki replied that: "The US military's replies to the Japanese government on this question showed there were nuclear troops stationed at US bases other than the Iwakuni base.

"The US military said, however, that the presence of nuclear troops at the bases did not necessarily mean the presence of nuclear weapons.' He added that there was evidence to show that nuclear weapons were stored at the Iwakuni base. In addition, the telephone directory of the Iwakuni base listed an NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical warfare) platoon.

'The directory also lists an engineer corps, supply oflicer, an operation officer and an officer assigned to check nuclear weapons,' Narazaki said. "This means nuclear weapons do exist at the Iwakuni base.' The 15th corps to which this unit belongs, is thought to have arrived in Japan from Vietham early in 1969. Similar units are stationed at Yokota and Misawa bases.

Masumi Ezaki, director of the Defence Agency, said it was quite in order for the US to station nuclear troops in Japan as long as the troops were undergoing training for defence rather than attack [sic].

The Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, a Communist Party front organization, has given four reasons for believing that nuclear weapons were stored in Japan after delivery by Hubbard and his fellow pilots.

In the early 1960s, when Hubbard's C124 was delivering the bombs, the Vietnam war had not yet escalated to its present intensity and the US had no incentive to send the bombs on to Vietnam Japan.

If the bombs were on their way to Vietnam, the US military could have sent them via Honolulu and Guam, which is the 'shortest and safest' route.

Japan constitutes part of the US military 'umbrella', ,. and there is every indication that the US would have found strategic value in stationing nuclear weapons so close to China and the Soviet Union. This would make better military sense than deploying the bombs in vulnerable S Korea which has already once been overrun by N Korea.

The whole controversy has burst at a. most embarrassing moment for the Japanese military and the Sato government. Sato is busy building up and expanding the Japanese army, despite constitutional obstacles. His relations with the US have come under heavy fire recently as a result of the Okinawa reversion treaty which has sparked violent opposition both on the island of Okinawa and on the mainland itself.

The painful revival of memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not at all to the liking of Sato and his colleagues, who are already dreaming of establishing another 'Greater Asian Coprosperity Sphere' as a way out of the financial and economic problems crowding in on Japanese big business. Top: Nagasaki 1945. Above Sato, busy bullding up and expanding the Japanese army. Right: students demonstrate against Us military bases on Okinawa.

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