Records show Japan collaborated with U.S. to have base presence ruled Constitutional砂川事件：「跳躍上告検討」など外務省公開文書に協議内容

Mainichi Shimbun - April 8, 2010
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2010/04/09/20100409p2a00m0na021000c.html
Records show Japan collaborated with U.S. to have base presence ruled Constitutional

Gentaro Tsuchiya, left, and Shigeru Sakata show off copies of the document, released by the Foreign Ministry. (Mainichi)After a district court ruled in 1959 that the U.S. military presence in Japan was unconstitutional, Tokyo told Washington that it was considering skipping normal procedures and directly appealing the case to the Supreme Court to have the ruling reversed, it has been learned.

The information comes from a group of former defendants in the case, which is known as the "Sunagawa Case," who disclosed the details of a now declassified document they received from the Foreign Ministry. The document shows that Japanese and U.S. officials held secret consultations in a desperate bid to nullify the ruling as quickly as possible.

The document contains a record of a meeting between then Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama and then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II on April 1, 1959, only two days after the Tokyo District Court ruling.

At the beginning of the meeting, Fujiyama promised to continue efforts to revise the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty despite the ruling.

He then told MacArthur that Japan was considering appealing the district court ruling to the Supreme Court, skipping a high court.

When MacArthur then asked Fujiyama what the prospects were for such a maneuver, Fujiyama responded that he had heard that the Supreme Court would place priority on the case, but it would still take three or four months before it handed down a ruling.

In April 2008, it was separately learned from a declassified U.S. document that MacArthur met with Fujiyama the day after the original ruling and recommended that Japan appeal directly to the Supreme Court. However, the Foreign Ministry has denied that it has any record of this meeting.

"It's impossible that this record does not exist. We'll ask for it again," said one of the former defendants, Gentaro Tsuchiya, 75.

"I want to use all my power to continue getting the release of important documents as long as I'm alive," said another defendant, 80-year-old Shigeru Sakata.

Tsuchiya and Sakata were among seven protesters indicted for trespassing on a U.S. base in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, in 1957. However, in March 1959 the Tokyo District Court acquitted all, ruling that the U.S. military presence in Japan was unconstitutional.

Prosecutors appealed the case directly to the Supreme Court, skipping the Tokyo High Court. The Supreme Court overturned the district court's decision in December 1959.

The Supreme Court's ruling came only a month before the January 1960 revision to the bilateral security treaty. It is likely that Tokyo and Washington were attempting to annul the lower court decision before the treaty revision.

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砂川事件：「跳躍上告検討」など外務省公開文書に協議内容
http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20100409k0000m040091000c.html

東京都砂川町（現立川市）にあった米軍立川基地での「砂川事件」（１９５７年）を巡る情報公開請求に対し、外務省が一転して文書を開示した問題で、請求者の元被告らが８日記者会見し、文書の内容を明らかにした。米軍駐留を違憲とした「伊達判決」（５９年）について、当時の外相が控訴を経ずに上告する「跳躍上告」の検討を駐日米大使に伝えたり、大使が外相に上告審の見通しを尋ねるなどした内容で、日米が違憲状態の早期解消を狙い協議したことが裏付けられた。

　文書は、伊達判決２日後の４月１日の「藤山大臣在京米大使会談録」。日本側は藤山愛一郎外相ら４人、米側はマッカーサー大使ら３人が出席した会談が記録されている。

　会談は日米安保条約改定作業のためと推測され、藤山外相は冒頭で伊達判決に触れ、「改定交渉は引き続き継続する」と明言。「最高裁に直接、上告するか検討中」としている。大使は上告審の見通しを尋ね、外相は「優先的に扱うと聞いているが、３、４カ月はかかる」と答えている。

　伊達判決を巡っては０８年４月、大使が判決翌日に外相と会い、跳躍上告を勧めたことが米側公文書で判明している。今回、その会談録は開示されず、元被告の土屋源太郎さん（７５）は「この１通しか文書がないというのはあり得ない。再度請求したい」と述べた。元被告の坂田茂さん（８０）は「もっと重要な文書が出てくるよう命ある限り闘いたい」と力を込めた。【野口由紀】