Decades since Washington and Tokyo reportedly crafted secret agreements to allow U.S. nuclear weapons in Japanese territory, declassified documents from the U.S. detailing its nuclear presence in Okinawa and elsewhere in Japan during the postwar period are slowly coming to light.
The move is creating headaches for both countries as they grapple over military bases in Okinawa and the future structure of the alliance.
The documents, some dating to the late 1950s, were publicly released by the National Security Archives at George Washington University in mid-October, not long after Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada called for an investigation into four alleged secret pacts, including allowing ships and aircraft carrying nuclear arms into Japanese territory.