U.S. military kept nuclear weapons on Okinawa prior to 1972: Pentagon

Nuclear weapons, Agent Orange...what next?

Nuclear weapons, Agent Orange...what next? base relocation, or so says the doomsday cultists

U.S. military kept nuclear weapons on Okinawa prior to 1972: Pentagon

Not a secret.

BUT, what I want the Dod to know about is what about AFTER 1972 and into the mid to late 80's?

Not talking about Kadena AFB, but that seldom used back road on Camp Schwab to a bunker that had extra security posted INSIDE the base and was off limits to unauthorized personnel.

What about then?

Of course they kept weapons there, and they should have kept Okinawa too just as the Russians have kept the Northern Islands. Okinawa would have become the 51st state and the Japanese would have thought that was ok. Japan needs the Americans to protect it from others and itself and having nukes there was good and still is good.

@Christopher Glen

Nuclear weapons, Agent Orange...what next?

Don't forget the Napalm used on Japanese citizens in WWII, depleted Uranium and white phosphorus used in Fallujah Iraq and the drones in Afghanistan.

It's no wonder that the US military would like to keep information about its weapons and how it has deployed them secret.

And?

Pretty obvious if you have visited Okinawa, there are all these missile like bunkers visable on the US bases. Its like the article says it was an open secret.

America has nukes on their carriers and subs all over the world and in places like Korea. Thats what Is meant by walk quietly but carry a big stick.

So how about now?

Does the US military still keep nuclear weapons and stocks of Agent Orange in its arsenals on Okinawa?

I'd like an honest answer to that if it were possible.

Pretty obvious if you have visited Okinawa, there are all these missile like bunkers visable on the US bases. Its like the article says it was an open secret.

What you "think" are "missile like bunkers" if you are referring to the one's you can see on the East China Sea side (west side of Okinawa) between Sunabe and Kadena circle....you really are OFF the map. Those are fuel bunkers not missile bunkers. Any other so called "bunkers" that you are referring too are NOT visible as you think.

So?

shonanbb,

having nukes there was good and still is good.

So the US military still has nuclear weapons in Okinawa?

Do you have any proof of this?

I wonder if the Americans still have nuclear weapons on Okinawa. The Japanese government can not inspect these facilities to be sure they were all removed. The Americans have lied about so much, what is one more? The bases need to be brought under Japanese control.

That's not a surprise. We forget Kadena AB was a forward operating base for the Strategic Air Command for many years (and in fact for a number of years B-47's were based there in order to reduce the flight time to attack targets in China and the eastern Soviet Union). Once the US Navy had missile submarines operating in the Pacific, it allowed the USAF to remove the nuclear weapons from Okinawa, though tactical weapons such a gravity bombs that could be dropped from small jets and nuclear artillery shells were kept in South Korea as a deterrent against a North Korean invasion.

There is very little truth in anything about Okinawa - the battle, the civilian deaths, the rapes, the nuclear weapons, the Agent Orange, the current base situation.

It's all lies and half lies by the Japanese and US governments.

There are no nuclear weapons on Okinawa - all nuclear weapons overseas, with the exception of several NATO countries, were withdrawn and relocated back to the US in the late '90s - to include those in SKorea.

To believe otherwise is to merely cater to the conspiracy theory fairy tales of the anti-base/anti-US radicals.

lincolnman,

To believe otherwise is to merely cater to the conspiracy theory fairy tales of the anti-base/anti-US radicals.

As opposed to the conspiratorial fairy tales concocted by the Japanese and US governments.

@Bertie: Of course I have proof. Obama and I took selfies next to one while taking selfies.

As opposed to the conspiratorial fairy tales concocted by the Japanese and US governments

I respect those folks who oppose the US presence on Okinawa for sincere reasons, those that offer only tired, old, knee-jerk anti-US rhetoric, not so much.......

I respect those folks who oppose the US presence on Okinawa for sincere reasons

Appreciate that

That's not a surprise. We forget Kadena AB was a forward operating base for the Strategic Air Command for many years (and in fact for a number of years B-47's were based there in order to reduce the flight time to attack targets in China and the eastern Soviet Union)

Let's not forget the B-52's that were stationed here as well.

Nuclear weapons are the ultimate evil weapons human beings have developed. So Japan's Three Non-Nuclear Principles, no possession, no production and no introduction of nuclear weapons, may be highly applauded. Eisaku Sato, PM Abe's granduncle, was the prime minister who formerly set forth this as a national policy. Partly for this, Sato won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1974.

But Norway's Nobel Peace Prize Selection Committee criticized itself in its memorials published in 2001 saying that Sato's selection was a mistake. It was revealed later that Sato had approached then West Germany for the joint development of nuclear weapons and that he had signed a secret agreement with the U.S., without mentioning a U.S. pressure to do so, that they could be reintroduced into Okinawa. whenever the U.S. wanted.

But, above all, asking the U.S. for a nuclear umbrella betrays that the Japanese government's three non-nuclear principles are nothing but a farce.

Appreciate that

Not sure why - certainly doesn't apply to you....

Not talking about Kadena AFB, but that seldom used back road on Camp Schwab to a bunker that had extra security posted INSIDE the base and was off limits to unauthorized personnel.

That's an ASP...Ammunition Supply Point. There are dozens of those bunkers that store ammunition of all shapes and sizes. Was it has extra security and is off-limits to unauthorized personnel is self-explanatory. It's not a state secret in the least. Google it.

Fairly poor timing to release this information now when Okinawans want nothing to do with US military bases

The storage of nuclear weapons in Okinawa or in mainland Japan was an open secret. So the article tells nothing new about it.

In the 1970's, Daniel Ellsberg, a DOD military analyst-turned active whistleblower, accused the U.S. government for lying about the fact that U.S. ships anchored off Iwakuni carried nuclear arsenal.

But we knew already that Iwakuni Base had nuclear weapons stored from the accident that took place about 200 km southeast off Amami Oshima, an island in the chain of the Ryukyu Islands.

The USS carrier Ticonderoga was on its way back to Iwakuni after engaging in Vietnam when a Hydrogen bomb carrying A-4E jet fighter accidentally dropped into the 5,000-meter sea with all its load and pilot. The aircraft hasn't been recovered to this day as yet.

So, posters, you know how the USFJ uses these bases, whether they are in mainland Japan or in Okinawa. Japan is, after all, a 51st state of the United States of America as one lawmaker wants it to be.

Not sure why - certainly doesn't apply to you....

I oppose the US military presence in Okinawa, for sincere reasons

"...not possess, produce, or nuke weapons on Japanese soil." I guess Japan can still have nukes made by allies and kept close to Japan in time of great emergency for use by JSDF. I am guessing that Japan probably has passive mines under the sea lanes used by the Chinese fleet.