Saturday, May 6, 1972
U.S. Tanks Leaving Japan - In Debate
TOKYO (UPI) --A new political controversy surfaced in Japan Thursday with the disclosure that American M48 tanks were being brought here from Vietnam for repairs and then reshipped back to the war zone.U.S. military authorities here confirmed that the tanks are being brought from Vietnam for repairs. Some of them are being sent back for combat activity.The admission by the American military authorities immediately brought new charges in the Japanese Diet (parliament) that the United States is violating the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty by not holding prior consultations with the government here over the use of U.S. forces stationed in Japan in the war in Vietnam.Similar charges were brought by opposition parties against the government last month over the movement of Marine fighter squadrons from Iwakuni, MCAS, in southern Japan, to Da Nang in Vietnam.Under terms of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, Japan must be consulted before the United States moves troops stationed in Japan to combat zones. The Japanese government said in the case of the squadrons that the aircraft were moved without clear orders to take part in combat, and therefore the movement was not subject to prior consultations.In the case of the tanks, the government said Thursday that their overhaul was part of a routine activity and that their shipment back to Vietnam was also not subject to prior consultations.In the Diet, members of the opposition said there was a good chance that the tanks were not to be used by the Americans in Vietnam, but by the South Vietnamese. If this is the case, the opposition said, the repair of the tanks in Japan is not only a violation of the security treaty, but also a violation of Japan's constitution, which prohibits Japan from taking part in a war.A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry admitted that if the tanks were used by the South Vietnamese, their maintenance in Japan would be illegal.The overhaul program is taking place at a U.S. facility just outside Tokyo, according to the U.S. military authorities here."The United States Army, Japan, presently has in the country a total of 79 M48 tanks, undergoing overhaul, at the U.S. Army Supply and Maintenance Activity, Sagami. Of these 79, only five are now awaiting shipment to the Republic of Vietnam. The tanks originally came to Japan from the Republic of Vietnam to Sagami Activity for routine overhaul as part of the activity's routine overhaul program."Beyond that two-sentence statement, U.S. authorities refused all further comment."U.S. Tanks Leaving Japan - in Debate", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Saturday, May 6, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.