Japan sought to keep US nuke umbrella
- Source: Global Times
- [03:37 November 25 2009]
- Comments
By Xu Donghuan
Kyodo News reported Monday that Japan's Taro Aso government once had lobbied aggressively for the US to maintain the capability of its "nuclear umbrella"in order to deter possible attacks by China and North Korea.
Senior Japanese diplomats met with members of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States and expressed deep concerns about the future credibility of the US "nuclear umbrella,"the Kyodo report said.
Tokyo's lobbying – conducted at least twice between autumn last year and February – came before US President Barack Obama's pledge to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
Japanese diplomats also suggested to the US congressional commission that the capability to penetrate underground targets with low-yield nuclear devices would strengthen the umbrella's credibility, sources told Kyodo news.
The US military currently has only one type of nuclear "bunker buster,"the high-yield B61-11, a bomb designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground. The B61-11 has about 20 times the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and most US military officials consider it too powerful to use in battle.
Sources also disclosed to Kyodo news that the Japanese lobbyists told the US commission they would like to be consulted if the US ever considers retiring the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – a long range, all weather, subsonic cruise missile – crucial in the nuclear deterrence against China and North Korea.
In its final report published in May, the US congressional commission, created during the George W. Bush years, said, "In Asia, extended deterrence relies heavily on the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles on some Los Angeles-class attack submarines – the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile/ Nuclear. This capability will be retired in 2013 unless steps are taken to maintain it."
Professor Li Bin, an expert on strategic arms control and international security from the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University, said he believed Japan's lobbying was largely out of its uneasiness with the rapid growth of China.
"They hoped to use the US' nuclear capabilities to balance the growth of China,"he said, noting that things have changed since Aso left office. "Unlike the Taro Aso administration, Japan's new administration has urged the US on ‘no first use' of nuclear weapons."
The Obama administration is in the final process of formulating the "Nuclear Posture Review,"a new nuclear-strategy guideline that will stipulate basic nuclear defense, disarmament and nonproliferation policies for the next five to 10 years.
