On Nov. 21, 1969, President Richard Nixon met with Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in Washington to discuss an extremely delicate issue.
With the reversion of Okinawa looming, the United States was anxious to secure secret permission from Tokyo to continue to have the option of bringing nuclear weapons into Okinawa, even after the islands had been returned to Japan.
But Sato, who had publicly declared that Japan would adhere to the principles of not possessing, manufacturing or introducing such weapons in Japan, was in a bind. Japanese public opposition to nuclear weapons was strong and the last thing he wanted was to inflame domestic opinion.
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