In these post-Cold War days, the governments of the United States and its allies still routinely expose their citizens to the risks of death and destruction in the name of national security. The people of northern Italy complained for years about low-flying U.S. military aircraft, but Rome simply ignored them. In February 1998, when a U.S. jet sliced through a ski-lift cable and plunged 20 people to their deaths, the pilots argued that their charts were inaccurate, their altimeter did not work, and they had not consulted U.S. Air Force units permanently based in the area about hazards. They hit the cable at 108 meters, whereas they were supposed to maintain an altitude of at least 300 meters (600 meters according to the Italian government). They were also not supposed to go faster than 827 kph but were actually traveling at 993 kph. Nonetheless, the American court-martial exonerated everyone involved and called it a "training accident."

Since 1975, Japanese municipalities, like those in Northern Italy, have also tried to protect their inhabitants from the menace of U.S. forces, particularly by trying to prevent U.S. warships from entering their harbors with nuclear weapons on board. Kobe began by asking incoming foreign vessels to submit certificates that they do not carry nuclear weapons. The U.S. refuses to do this, but allows the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to fax letters to local authorities saying it is convinced that a particular U.S. vessel is not carrying nuclear weapons. The ministry, however, knows the opposite to be true. In 1997, the National Security Archive at George Washington University released a highly classified U.S. government document dated April 29, 1969, stating that "Japan now acquiesces in transit by naval vessels armed with nuclear weapons" (see www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/japan/okinawa/okinawa.htm ). When this document was released, NHK devoted a television special to it (May 14, 1997).

The Japanese Diet is currently debating new Japan-U.S. defense guidelines -- treatylike commitments that if enacted will allow U.S. forces to occupy and use Japanese ports and airfields in the event of a U.S.-designated security "emergency." In response, many Japanese localities have started to require Kobe-style documents. Their desire to have some control over these "floating Chernobyls" is understandable. The most important case is Kochi Prefecture, where Gov. Daijiro Hashimoto, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and no leftwing firebrand, has asked the prefectural assembly to pass a law requiring "nonnuclear certificates" before allowing warships to enter Kochi ports. He claims that he is merely following the national government's three nonnuclear principles.