REPORTS

WHERE THEY WERE haps the "C" country was Ceylon, sug­ gested a Sri Lankan reporter; ma),be the Chagos archipelago (Diego Gar­ cia), ~uggested another. Suggestions How much did included Chile, Christmas Island, the . Canal Zone, Colomhia, and many other candidates beginning with "C." Japan know? But on Octoher 23, we got an e-mail from Daniel Long, a sociolinguist at Tokyo )\1etroralitan University,sug­ gesting that the'''C'' location was Chi­ By Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr chi Jima, a Japanese island that was oc­ cupied bythe United States from 1946 to 1968. Then a highly knowledgeable Japanese source who contacted us on THEY SAY YOU LEARN BY YOUR MISTAKES. c1e'ar storage location beginning with October 27 prOvided a "smoking gun" In the NovemberlDecember 1999 the letter "1." [For more on Iceland, for Chichi Jima, as well as evidence issue of the Bulletin, we described the· see page 80.] that nuclear weapons had also been Pentagon's recently declassified, top­ After the Bulletin was published, the deployed un Iwo Jima. secret history of U.S. nuclear deploy­ U.S. government took the extraordi- . . We have now concluded that the ments abroad-History ofthe Custody nary step of suspending its "neither "C" and "1" locations are Chichi Jima and Deployment ofNuclear Weapons: confirm nor deny" polic)' concerning and Iwo Jima. After researching the July 1945 through September 1977. nuclear weapons, specificall), telling National Archives and the U.S. Navy Appendix B of that report included al­ the Associated Press on October 26 Archives, exchanging e-mail with ex­ phabeticallists of the countries where that Iceland was not the "I" country perts, and communicating witlo U.S. U.S. nuclear bombs were deployed be­ blacked out on the list. veterans who served on or visited the tween 1950 and 1977, but many of the Everyone loves a mystery, and now islands, we can now tell the story that locations had been blacked out before we had two: We had already puzzled the Pentagon managed to keep secret the document was released. over a "c" location, listed between for more than 40 years. Based on the best available informa­ Canada and Cuba, which we had not tion, historical hints, and circumstan­ been able to identifY. And what was 0;> 0 0;> 0 tial evidence, we correctly identified the real 'T' location, if not Iceland? 25 of the 27 blacked out countries. We E-mail and telephone calls poured FABLED AS A "NON-NUCLEAR NATION," incorrectly named Iceland as the nu­ in from all comers ofthe globe. Per­ Japan is beginning to look very differ-

I

JanuarrlFebmary 2000 11 fighting may have gained notoriety in the Reagan years, but the plans go back to the beginning of the nuclear era.:!

o 0 0 0

FIVE HUNDRED MILES SOUTHEAST OF the Japanese mainland and 850 miles . north of the U.S. possession of Guam lies Chichi Jima (Father Island in Japanese, also known as Peel Island), the only inhabited island in the Bonin (Ogasawara Gunto) group. In the early nineteenth century, Britain claimed the Bonins, and in 1830, the British consul in Hawaii formed an expedition to Chichi Jima. The group .included Americans (in­ cluding a young man from Mas­ sachusetts named Nathaniel Savory) and other colonizers, who settled on A 1976 photo shows one of the gun mounts or "pillboxes" the Japanese built on Chichi Chichi Jima. Even after Japan success­ Jima 20 years before World War II. fully claimed the islands in 1876, the Westerners remained. By the start of ent, given what we now know. Japan nevertheless hosted an extensive nu­ World War II, the population had may have had its principles, but the clear infrastructure~at its peak, as grown to some 4,300. (Many of the Pentagon had its nuclear war plans and large as that of other American allies. original settlers had married Japanese.) it pushed the envelope as far as it It is true that Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, The Japanese fortification of Chichi could. There were nuclear weapons on and Okinawa were under U.S. occupa­ Jima began some 20 years before Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima, an enor­ tion, that the bombs stored on the World War II. When he first visited mous and varied nuclear arsenal on mainland lacked their plutonium and! the island in 1951, Adm. Arthur Rad­ Okinawa, nuclear bombs (sans their or uranium cores, and that the nuclear­ ford, who was then the U.S. comman­ fissile cores) stored on the mainland at armed ships were a legal inch away der-in-chief in the Pacific, described Misawa and Itazuki airbases (and pos­ from Japanese soil. All in all, this elab­ gun emplacements, machine shops, oil sibly at Atsugi, Iwakuni, Johnson, and orate strategem maintained the techni­ storage, and ammunition magazines Komaki airbases as well), and nuclear­ cality that the United States had no placed underground in concrete-lined, armed U.S. Navy ships stationed in nuclear weapons "in Japan." ventUated caves. It was a "fantastic net­ Sasebo and Yokosuka. In all, according As the only nation to have been work of underground tunnels and to the declassified 1956-57 Far East bombed with nuclear weapons, Japan caves," Radford wrote in his autobiog­ Command "Standing Operating Pro­ adopted a non-nuclear policy, in part raphy, From Pearl Harbor to Vietnam. cedures for Atomic Operations," 13 to exempt itself from being a nuclear The Japanese boasted that the island separate locations in Japan had nucle­ target in the future, or so they thought. ar weapons or components, or were But beginning in the early 1950s, the Robert S. Norris is a senior research earmarked to receive nuclear weapons Pentagon assumed that in the event of analyst at the Natural Resources De­ in times of crisis or war.l nuclear war, the U.S. bases in Japan fense Council in Washington, D. C. He Nuclear war planners never ob­ . and Okinawa would quickly be de­ is currently writing a biography of tained the right to store complete nu­ stroyed. That is why nuclear war plan­ Gen. Leslie R. Groves. William M. clear weapons on the main islands. ners wanted hideouts on Chichi Jima Arkin is co-author of Nuclear Battle­ And the State Department always and Iwo Jima. The islands would serve fields (1985), the first book to docu­ avoided a showdown, fealing tbat con­ as secret "recovery a.nd reload" bases ment the deployment of u. S. nuclear frontation over the issue or leaks about for submarines and bombers, which weapons overseas. William Burr is a a secret arrangement would inevitably after withdrawing to the islands, would senior analyst at the National Security lead to the downfall ofthe U.S.-orient­ go on to wage a new offensive. Archive and director ofits. U. S. nuclear ed ruUng Liberal Democrats. Japan The idea ofprotracted nuclear war- history documentation praject.

12 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was "the Gibraltar ofthe Pacific.'" where they had been relocated dming siles were brought to Chichi Jima. For One hundred and twenty miles the war. Iwo Jima was kept unpopulat­ tl,e next eight years, Regulus warheads from Chichi Jima, and 760 miles ed. The American descendants on (and presumably, missiles) were hid­ south-southeast of Tokyo, is Iwo Jima Chichi Jima petitioned Admiral Rad­ den in the island caves. (Sulfur Island), the largest (at eight ford for citizenship; they also wanted square miles) of the three-island Vol­ assurances that the Bonins would re­ (> (I (I (I cano group. The Japanese army decid­ main under U.S. control. The U.S. ed to make Iwo a military fortress in Navy established a small presence on THE REGULUS WEAPON SYSTEM WAS 1944. The island's radar installation March 1, 1952 to administer the island. bizarre in concept and execution, and detected U.S. B-29s flying from Chichi Jima became a port of call for not much to l"ok at. "The ugliest sub­ Saipan and Tinian, and warnings were submarines and hvo Jima became an marine I had e-'er laid eyes on," one relayed to the mainland. Three air­ outpost of the Far East Air Force. cre",nan wrote, describing his initial fields were built, and Japanese fight­ During the mid-1950s, President impression of the U.S.S. Grayback. ers based on Iwo Jima harassed Eisenhmver approved extensive nucle­ The 500-mile-range missiles were bombers flying to and from Japan, ar deployments to the Pacific, and stored in large, watertight hangars atop even occaSionally attacking American Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima became nu­ the submarine, something like two bases in the Marianas. clear bases. Defense Secretary Charles horizontal grain silos side by side. Sub­ .' The)oint Chiefs of Staff decided E. Wilson wrote to Secretary of State malines had to come to the surface to that Iwo Jima must be captured. Be­ John Foster Dulles in 1955, broaching fire the 42-foot-Iong missiles. The tur­ ginning on Fehruary 19, 1945, three the subject of dispersing a small num­ bojet-equipped cruise missiles were U.S. Marine Corps divisions landed on ber of atomic weapons to the Bonin backed out of the hangar, placed on a the beaches, initiating 36 days offierce and Volcano islands. On November 18, rail launcher, raised, and fired.' combat in one ofthe bloodiest battles Dulles responded that he had no ob­ The Regulus was originally deployed of World War II. By March 26, the jection, adding that he assumed that in 1955 aboard a cruiseJ; the U.S.S. Los campaign was offiCially over and the is­ storing atomic weapons there would Angeles, and on an aircraft carrier, the land was under American control. not prevent the later resettlement of U.S.S. Hancock, but it was in its sub­ Iwo Jima's connection to nuclear Bonin island inhahitants.' maJine configuration that the missile weapons began early-it had a contin­ According to a declassified memo­ provided nuclear war planners with the gency role in the atomic bombings of randum for Admiral Radford, who had capability to tllfeaten Soviet targets Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Navy engi­ become chainnan of the joint Chiefs from a relatively invulnerable platform. neers built a backup loading pit on the of Staff, "On 6 Fehruary 1956, the Five Regulus subs-Tunny, Barbero, island. If eitl,er Enola Gay or Bock's Chief of Naval Operations [Adm. Ar­ Grayback, Growler, and Halibut­ Car had had trouble after leaving Tini­ leigh A. Burkel stated that one weapon conducted 41 nuclear patrols in the an, their orders were to land on Iwo with core was placed in storage on northern Pacific from 1959 through Jima and transfer the bomb to a stand­ Chichi Jima." This date fits exactly 1964. The missiles, which were initially by B-29, which would continue on to with the "Bomb" entry in Appendix E, equipped with W5 120-kiloton nuclear Japan.' which lists "February 56" as the date warheads, were later upgraded, begin­ of "Initial Entry.'" ning in the fall of 1958, with tWo-mega­ (I (> (I (I That same month, "non-nuclear ton W27,thernlonuclearwarheads. bombs" (most likely Mk6s of Fat Man Grayback and Growler carried four As THE U.S. MILITARY OCCUPATION OF . deSign, witllOut their fissile cores), missiles each, Tunny and Barbero each Japan came to a close in 1951, the two were sent to Iwo Jima. The caves on carIiedtwo, and the nuclear-powered countries Signed a security treaty Chichi Jima and the Central Air Base U.S.S. Halibut carried five. On 90-day granting the United States wide-rang­ on Iwo Jima were nov.' nuclear fall­ patrols, it was necessary for the diesel ing rights to station its land, sea, and back positions should the Soviet subs to make fuel stops at either Mid- . air forces "in and about Japan." Not all Union invade or destroy the Japanese way Island or Adak, Alaska, depending of what had been pre-war Japan was mainland. on their operating area. granted full sovereignty. Okinawa, the Vve do not knmv how many bombs To fire a "Blue Bird," as tl,e missiles Bonins, and the Volcano islands re­ were deployed to Chichi Jima, nor do were called, the submarines not only mained under American control, al­ we know the reason for their qUick had to surface and be within range of though Washington acknowledged withdrawal in May 1956. Perhaps the their targets, they also had to coordi­ Japan's "residual sovereignty.'" presence of a few nuclear hombs was nate with two accompanying attack After the war, more than 100 descen­ as a stand-in for missiles tlJat had not submarines that would position them­ dants of the Oliginal Western settlers yet arrived. In March, W5 nuclear selves along the missiles' flight path to returned to Chichi Jima from Japan, warheads for the navy's Regulus mis­ See JAPAN on page 78

JanuarylFebruary 2000 13 J A PAN Continued from page 13 air force officer assigned to the island. NSA and CIA activities." to transmit guidance instructions. After bombers dropped their bombs on Despite the military's arguments, the The navy required at least four Reg­ targets in the Soviet Union or China, Johnson administration gradually came ulus missiles to be on station at all they were to fly to Iwo Jima, where to the realization that it would have to times. This meant that either the two­ they would be refueled, reloaded, and return Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima to missile boats deployed together. or the readied to deliver a second salvo. forestall reversion of the more impor­ others deployed on their own. Many tant Okinawa bases. President Johnson submarines conducted "back-to-back" I> I> I> I> also wanted Japan's tacit support for patrols from Adak to maintain their U.S. military operations in Southeast rigorous schedule, rather than return WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF POLARIS Asia. During a summit meeting witb to Pearl Harbor. missiles and submarines in 1960, the Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato According to a former Regulus sub­ days of the Regulus were numbered. on November 14 and 15, 1967, John­ marine captain and Pacific Fleet nu­ On December 26, 1964, the U. s. S. son agreed to talks on the "early res­ clear war planner, Chichi Jima "figured Daniel Boone left Guam armed with toration" of the Bonin and Volcano is­ in the strategic planning as a 'reload 16 Polaris A-3s for its first Pacific pa­ lands to Japanese adminis,tration. point' for Regulus submarines that had trol, just five months after the Halibut Secretary of State Dean Rusk had launched their missiles, and were sailed into Pearl Harbor on July 14, held talks with his Japanese counter­ available for another strike." The as­ ending the Regulus era. part, arguiog for the right to retain Iwo sumption was that the major U.S. Between October and December Jima lest Beijing or Moscow "mis­ I . bases. in Japan would be destroyed in a . 1964, the last Regulus warheads were calculate," thinking tbat the United I nuclear war, along with the bases at removed from Chichi Jima. Its role in States was leaving the western Pacific. Pearl Harbor, Guam, and Adak. Chichi nuclear war plans was coming to an The Japanese rejected the idea of the Jima, a small base, might evade such a end (though there was an inexplicable United States retaining the islands, al­ calamity and be a safe harbor for the IS-month deployment there beginning though in the end, Sato agreed that an surviving submarines to reload, plan­ in October 1964 of W30 nuclear war­ agreement on reversion would take ners thought. Spare parts and provi­ heads for the navy's surface-to-air Talos U.S. security interests into account.l t . sions for the submarines were also missiles). New pressures to return the What precisely were those interests kept in the caves. Bonins and Volcanos to Japan were and what demands did the .united Iwo Jima served a similar role in nu­ intenSifying. States make on tbe Japanese? The clear war plans. Detachment One of The growing submarine force, and U.S. Navy was pushing for the right to the Seventh Tactical Depot Squadron the introduction of multiple-warhead use Chichi Jima for contingency stor­ established a nuclear storage site at missiles, caused huge increases in the age of nuclear weapons. Days before Central Air Base, and complete bombs numbers oflong-range weapons, less­ Johnson met witb Sato, the JOint with their nuclear cores were intro­ ening the need for forward bases. Still, Chiefs informed the State Department duced in September 1956 (they re­ war planners were not ready to close that any agreement on the Bonins mained on the island until December the books on their two islands. A 1964 must take into account the "contingen­ 1959).' Non-nuclear bombs (bombs State Department cable to the Ameri­ cy of need for storage of ASW (antisub­ without their fissile cores) were intro­ can embassy in Tokyo underscored marine) weapons in the event of duced in February 1956 and remained their importance: "At [the1present time prospective enemy submarine threat until June 1966. there is a naval installation in use on and unaVailability of nuclear storage" Quietly tucked away from the bigger Chichi-jima. Bonins are reqUired for on Okinawa or Guam. In December and busier U.S. airbases at Guam and additional military functions, including 1967, during the negotiations, the U.S. Okinawa, and with no, assigned fighter special weapons storage, SAC diversion ambassador to Japan, U.Alexis John­ or bomber units, Iwo J~ma served as a and refueling bases, and possible ad­ son, told the State Department that he recovery facility, according to a former vance submarine bases, training areas, would try to get something in writing from the Japanese on the subject of nuclear contingencies, so "successive Japanese governments can be advised of[thel U.S. position."" Tbe final outcome of these negotia­ tions is far from clear. Sato and For­ eign Minister Takeo Miki had already told the Japanese parliament that the return of the Bonins bad nothing to do with nuclear weapoRs. Miki feared

78 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists .',

that a confidential agreement would , weapons from Okinawa in 1972. leak and make the eventual reversion Historical circumstances forced of the Rvukus, where Okinawa's nu­ The "NRDC Nuclear Notebook" by Washington to aocept some constraints. clear ~ol~ was no secret in Japan, all William M. Arkin and Robert S. First, the traumatizing experience of Hi­ the more difficult." Norris, which normally appears on roshima and Nagasaki created such The final agreement included a se­ these pages, was pre-empted by this strong feelings among the Japanese c cret annex, and its exact wording re­ Arkin/Norris/Wiliiam Burr article. about nuclear weapons that everyad mains classified. A cable from the U.S. ministration in Tokyo and Washington "Nuclear Notebook" will resume embassy in Tokyo, dated December had to make accommodations. Sec­ 30, 1968, is titled "Bonin Agreement in the March/April issue. ond, Tokyo wamed to immunize the

Nuclear Storage," but the National " nation from the ~otential effects of a Archives contains a "withdrawal nuclear war between the superpow­ sheet" for an accompanying Tokyo removed from Iwo Jima at the end of ers. Such a goal was difficult for any cable dated April 10, 1968, titled 1959, Chichi Jima, which had the same nation to advance during the Cold "Bonins Agreement-Secret Annex," legal status, continued to house war­ War. For the Japanese nation and and located in the same file. \Ve now heads with their nuclear materials until Japanese political leaders, the elabo­ believe that the United States and 1965. And Okinawa, of course, was rate strategem maintained the illusion Japan signed a "Nuclear Storage chock-a-block full of nuclear weapons of nuclear purity. Japanese political Agreement" on April 10, 1968. of all types until 1972. Nuclear-armed leaders could either deny everything Presumably, that understanding met ships moored at U.S. Navy bases in or plead ignorance. the Pentagon's minimum demand for Japan, and others called at Japanese Undoubtedly, Japanese rulers finnly. the right to store nuclear weapons in a ports without restriction. believed that the compromises they military emergency, although whether Yet, as compromised as it was, japan's made with Washington were necessary it included anything else remains to be non-nuclear policy was not whollyficti­ for Japanese security during the dark seen. In June 1968, the Bonin and Vol­ tious. The Pentagon never commanded days of the Cold War. Through it all, cano islands were returned to Japan, nuclear storage rights on the main is­ nonetheless, "non-nuclear Japan" was becoming part of Ogasawara village in lands, and it had to withdraw nuclear a sentiment, not a reality.• the Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture." 1. Far East Command Headquarters,-"Stand. the Office of -the Secretal)' of Defense's FOlA ing Operating Procedure No.1 for Atomic Oper­ Reading Room, Room 2C757, the Pentagon. ations in the Far East Command," November 1, 8. David K. Stumpf, Regulus: The Forgotten 1956. We thank Hani; M. Kristerisen of the' Nau­ Weapon (Paducah, Ky., Twner Publishing Co., 1996). IF THERE IS ANY COUNTRY THAT HAS HAD tilus Institute for providing a copy of this docu­ 9. See U.S. Far East Command, "Standing Op­ ment, which is also posted on-the Nautilus Web erating Procedure No.1, Appendix I to Annex D a "nuclear allergy," it is Japan. Its defeat page (nautilus.org), "Atomic Weapons Accounts," (revised January in World War II and occupation by the 2. John Welfield, An Empirdn Eclipse: Japan 1957). United States led to Article 9 of its 1947 in the Postwar American Alliance System (Lon­ 10. State Department cable 371 to U.S. Em­ don: "The Athlone Press, 1988), esp. pp. 252-66; bassy Tokyo, August 6, 1964, National Archives, ·constitution, in which Japanre­ Hans M. Kristensen, Japan Under the Nuclear Record Group 59, -Subject-NumeriC Files, nounced war and the maintenance of Umbrella: U.S. Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear 1964-66, File "POL 19 Bonin Is." For other docu­ "land, sea, and air forces." The Diet War Planning in Japan During the Cold War ments on the role of the BoDins in Pentagon plan­ (Berkeley, CaliI, Nautilus Institute, July 1999). ning, see the National Security Archive's Web has interpreted Article 9 as permitting 3. Stephen Ju~ Jr., e'd.'; From Pearl Hamor page (gwu.eduJ-nsarchivl). militarya1liances deemed necessary for to Vietnam: The Memoirs ofAdmiral Arthur W. 11. For the Johnson-Sato summit, see Michael national security, hut even in that case, Radford (Stanford, _Calif.: .Hoover Institution Schaller, Altered States: The united States and Press, 1980), pp. 150-54.. ~ '. . Japan Since the Occupation (New York, N.Y.: Ox­ there is anundeviating rejection of nu­ _ 4. Leslie R. Groves, NOw It Can Be Told: -The ford University Press, 1997), 203-04. For Rusk's clear weapons. The cornerstone ofthat Story ofthe Manhettan Project (New York, H"'1'­ meeting with Takeo Mikki, see Memorandum of rejection: the three non-nuclear princi­ e;, 1962), p. 281. Conversation, "Ryuku Islands," September 16, 5. See Waite; LaFebet; The Clash, U.S.Ja­ 1967, National Archives, Record Group'59, Sub­ ples~"no production, nO possession, panese Relations Throughout History (New YorK, ject-NumeriC Files, 1967-69, File "POL 19 Ryu." and no introduction." These principles N.Y., Norton, 1007), pp. 283, 288-90. ~2. State Department cable 65120 to U.S. Em­ date from 1959, when Prime Minister - 6. Chairman's Staff Grpupto Admiral Radford, bassy Tokyo, November 5, 1967 and TOkyo Em­ "Dispersal of Atomic.Weapons in the_ Bonin and bassy'cable 4333 to State Department, December N obusuke Kishi stated that Japan Volcano Islands," June 4;]967, Nat:!onal Archives, 29, 1967, National Archives, Record Group 59, would neither develop nuclear weapons Record Group 218, Chairman's' 'Files; Admiral Subject-NumeriC Files, 1967-69, File "POL 19 nor pennitthem on its territory. Radford, Box_44, File 476.L -.", __ . Bonin Islands."· 7. Ibid.; Office ofthe Assistant to the Secretary 13. Tokyo Embassy cable 4333 (;b;d.). But when these non-nuclear princi­ of Defense (Atomic Energy), History -Ofthe Cus­ 14. U.S. Embassy Tokyo airgram 2370, "Bonin ples were being enunciated, Japanese tody and DeplnymentofNuclear Weapons, July Agreement Nuclear Storage," December 30, 1968, territory was already fully compro­ 1945 through September 1977, F.,bruary 1978, National Archives, Record Group 59, Subject-Nu­ Appendix B. Portions- ofthe History are_ available meric Files, 1967-'69, File "POL 19 Bonin Islands." mised,inspirit if not in letter. Al­ on the National Security Archive Web page (gwu. This file includes the withdrawal sheet for the "Se­ though actual nuclear weapons were edul-nsarchivl). The full document "is available in cret Annex." L Janu'rylFebruary 2000 79