TNAG-0115-FCO40-151-Departmental-briefs-for-Commonwealth-Prime-Minister-s-and-ot-1969 — Page 69

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Okinawa;

CONFIDENTIAL

whether Japan would seek the

automatic continuation of the Treaty

and whether this would be acceptable to

the United States; why so much emphasis

was placed on the early return of

Okinawa; whether the Japanese

Government foresawe (after the end

of hostilities in Vietnam) .the-need to

change the position of the armed forces

under the Constitution; what was the

attitude of the Japanese Government to

the present position in North Korea

(he paid tribute to the cool way in

which President Nixon had handled the

and

recent shooting down of a reconnaissance

aircraft); what was Japan's view of the

South Korean economy.

36.

Mr. Aichi explained that as Okinawa was

Japanese territory - a fact confirmed

at the Peace Conference in 1951 by

representatives of the United States and

the United Kingdom its continued

administration by a foreign power was

unnatural.

It was the unanimous

wish of the Japanese Government and

people to end this situation, and the

United States had agreed that

administrative control should be returned

to Japan in due course. Mr. Sato would

be visiting the United States later this

year for talks on this problem. Japan

/depended

CONFIDENTIAL