Apr 12, 2021
Earlier this week Kyodo News dropped a bombshell (pun intended) by introducing the contents of declassified U.S. documents that the U.S. government turned down a request in June 1978 for its military based in Japan to use its firing and bombing ranges in the Senkaku Islands.
The reason given in the story, reprinted on April 5 in The Japan Times (“U.S. ceased using Senkaku islets as firing range in 1978 to avoid riling China”), is that the U.S. government feared “it could become embroiled in a Sino-Japanese territorial dispute.”
Although the fact that the U.S. military has not used the ranges since that time is commonly known, the reason for it has been one of speculation without the supporting documents. Thus, the importance of the Kyodo reporting.
The dangerously flawed U S Senkakus policy japantimes.co.jp - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from japantimes.co.jp Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Senkaku Islands, including the islands Uotsuri-jima, Kuba-shima and Taisho-jima, are a group of five islands and three reefs north of the Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. Based on both history and international law, the Senkaku Islands are part of the territory of Japan, and in fact Japan has effective control over them.
Following the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE)’s survey report on coastal mineral resources in the fall of 1968, which suggested massive petroleum and gas reserves in the seabed areas around the islands, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued their “Statement concerning the issue of China’s sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands” (the Chinese name for the Senkaku Islands) on December 30, 1971, marking the beginning of the Chinese government’s formal claims of sovereignty over the islands.