A leading politician in 1968 sought a partial return of administrative rights in Okinawa ahead of the full return of the U.S.-occupied prefecture, but Washington rejected the demand, according to diplomatic documents declassified Wednesday.
The late Shojiro Kawashima, vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party at the time, traveled to Washington in September 1968 and made the request in talks with Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
Kawashima's request apparently mirrored Japan's jitters over the lack of progress on Okinawa's reversion, despite a November 1967 agreement between Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and President Lyndon B. Johnson that the islands would be returned to Japan "within two to three years."