日本語は下方をご覧ください。
Did you know that back in 1959, US military bases in Japan were deemed unconstitutional at Tokyo District Court? Two days after the ruling, then US ambassador and Japan's Foreign Minister had a secret meeting and Tokyo appealed at the Supreme Court, which overturned the district court's decision. That was right before the 1960 renewal of AMPO, Japan-US Security Treaty. In the 50th anniversary of AMPO, government is only talking about "deepening" of the bilateral military alliance. We citizens need to go back to the 1959 ruling and question the constitutionality of the US bases before we celebrate this Treaty based on such a deceitful political intervention with court by the two governments.
Documents confirm 1959 Japan-U.S. secret meeting over court case
Mainichi Newspaper on April 3, 2010
In a drastic turnaround, the Foreign Ministry has acknowledged the existence of documents on a secret meeting between Japan and the United States following a 1959 court decision that ruled the U.S. military's presence in Japan unconstitutional.
The ministry disclosed the documents to one of the former defendants in the so-called Sunagawa Case, in which anti-base demonstrators accused of trespassing on a U.S. military base in western Tokyo were acquitted after a court ruled the base unconstitutional. The decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court and the defendants convicted.
Shortly after the initial ruling, the then U.S. ambassador to Japan met with the Japanese foreign minister and the Supreme Court chief justice, but the Foreign Ministry had denied there were any documents left regarding the meetings.
The latest revelation underscores the ministry's reluctance to comply with the principle of information disclosure, following a recent finding that the ministry may have discarded some of the important documents related to secret pacts made between Japan and the United States during the Cold War.
The documents related to the secret bilateral meeting over the Sunagawa Case were disclosed on Friday evening to Shigeru Sakata, 80, a resident of Kawasaki, who along with 40 supporters had filed a request for their disclosure following the change of regime in September last year.
"We need to scrutinize the content (of the documents), but it's a step forward," said Sakata.
Sakata is among the former defendants accused of trespassing on a U.S. military base in Tachikawa, Tokyo, while they staged a protest against the base's expansion in July 1957. Out of the 23 demonstrators who were arrested in September the same year seven were indicted, but all were acquitted by the Tokyo District Court in March 1959 after the court ruled the U.S military's presence unconstitutional. However, prosecutors appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which overturned the lower court decision in December 1959.
Since the Supreme Court decision came shortly before the January 1960 revision to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, suspicions were raised that Tokyo and Washington rushed to settle the case by annulling the lower court decision ahead of the bilateral security arrangement amendments.
In April 2008, it emerged through U.S. official documents that then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II met with Japanese Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama over the district court ruling and urged Tokyo to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The U.S. documents also revealed that MacArthur discussed the timetable of the appeals hearing with then Supreme Court chief justice Kotaro Tanaka.
Sakata and others filed a request for the disclosure of information over the issue in March last year, but the Justice Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Cabinet Office and the Supreme Court all replied by May last year that there were no documents regarding the meetings with the U.S. ambassador.
Following the change of government in September last year, the petitioners once again filed a request for information disclosure in October, after Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada ordered a survey into Japan-U.S. secret pacts on the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan and other issues. Although the Justice Ministry, the Cabinet Office and the Supreme Court insisted on nondisclosure in November, the Foreign Ministry pledged to "continue to investigate the case" while saying they "could not identify the documents at this moment" in its reply on Dec. 25.
The documents that were disclosed to Sakata on Friday evening came in 34 pages, handwritten and sealed as "confidential," and are titled "minutes from a meeting between Minister Fujiyama and the U.S. ambassador in Tokyo." The meeting took place in April 1959, only two days after the Tokyo District Court ruling. Lawyers and others from a group supporting Sakata will analyze the details of the documents.
Gentaro Tsuchiya, 75, a resident of Shizuoka and another former defendant of the Sunagawa Case, said: "Due to the heightened public attention on the bilateral secret pacts issue, the Foreign Ministry may have had no choice but to give serious consideration (to the disclosure of the documents)."
砂川事件判決：日米密談の文書存在 外務省が一転開示
毎日新聞 ２０１０年４月３日
東京都立川市にあった米軍立川基地を巡り、米軍駐留を違憲とした５９年の「伊達判決」直後に、当時の駐日米大使が日本側の外相や最高裁長官に面会していた問題で、外務省が「関連文書不存在」としていた従来の姿勢を翻し、文書の存在を認めたことが分かった。政権交代を受けて、文書を開示するよう再請求していた元被告側に２日夕開示した。一連の「密約問題」同様に、情報公開の趣旨を逸脱するこれまでの外務省の姿勢が明らかになった。【野口由紀】
開示を求めていたのは、同基地への立ち入りを問われた「砂川事件」の元被告、坂田茂さん（８０）＝川崎市中原区＝と支援者ら計４０人。
同事件の１審「伊達判決」を巡り、当時のマッカーサー駐日米大使が藤山愛一郎外相と会い、控訴を経ずに上告する「跳躍上告」を勧めていたことや、大使と田中耕太郎最高裁長官が上告審の時期の見通しについて密談していたことが０８年４月、米側公文書で判明。元被告らが、０９年３月に情報公開請求したが、法務省、外務省、内閣府、最高裁の４機関は同年５月までに、大使との会議記録などに関し「不存在」と通知していた。
今回、一転して外務省が公開したのは、伊達判決２日後の５９年４月の「藤山大臣在京米大使会談録」。「極秘」との印が押された手書き文書で計３４ページある。今後、支援組織の弁護士らが読解を進める。
公開の再請求は、昨年９月の政権交代で、岡田克也外相が一連の日米密約の調査を指示したことを受け、１０月に行った。外務省以外の３機関は１１月、以前と同じ理由で不開示としたが、外務省は１２月２５日、「現時点までに、該当文書を特定することができなかった」として、不開示を通知したものの、「最終決定ではなく、引き続き調査を行う」としていた。
坂田さんは「内容をよく見ないと分からないが、一歩前進だ」と喜び、同じく元被告の静岡市葵区、土屋源太郎さん（７５）は「密約問題への世論が高まり、外務省としても真剣に考えざるを得なかったのだと思う」と話している。
【ことば】砂川事件
１９５７（昭和３２）年７月、米軍立川基地拡張に反対するデモ隊の一部が基地に立ち入り、同年９月に２３人が日米安保条約に基づく刑事特別法違反容疑で逮捕され、うち７人が起訴された。５９年３月、東京地裁は米軍駐留は違憲として７人に無罪を言い渡した。伊達秋雄裁判長の名前から伊達判決と呼ばれる。検察側が跳躍上告し、最高裁が５９年１２月に１審を破棄。当時は日米安保条約の改定を６０年１月に控え、日米両政府とも米軍基地の存在を違憲とする伊達判決を修正することが急務だったとみられる。
◆砂川事件をめぐる経過◆
１９５７年７月 米軍立川基地にデモ隊が立ち入る
９月 ２３人が刑事特別法違反容疑で逮捕。後に７人が同罪で起訴
５９年３月 東京地裁が「米軍駐留は違憲」として７人に無罪判決（伊達判決）
４月 検察側が最高裁に跳躍上告
１２月 最高裁、１審を破棄、差し戻しを命じる
６０年１月 日米安保条約改定
６１年３月 東京地裁、７人に罰金２０００円の判決
６３年１２月 最高裁、上告棄却を決定。有罪確定
２００８年４月 ５９年の最高裁判決の前に駐日米大使と最高裁長官が密談していたことが米側公文書で判明
０９年３月 元被告らが日本側の記録開示を４機関に請求。５月までに「文書不存在」として不開示
１０月 元被告らが再度、４機関に開示請求
１１月 内閣府など３機関が同様理由で不開示
１０年３月 外務省が開示と通知
No comments:
Post a Comment