Office of the Historian

76. Telegram From the Embassy in Japan to the Department of State0

Tokyo, June 12, 1959, 10 p.m.

2676. CINCPAC exclusive for POLAD and Adm Felt. COMUS/Japan exclusive for Gen Burns. Embtel 26441 and Embtel 2675.2 Fujiyama informs me that with great difficulty he has managed to obtain GOJ acceptance of “Yamada formula” to solve constitutionality problem. [Page 194] Accordingly Japanese are now prepared to drop their insistence on a separate article on constitutionality and are prepared to accept insertion of “subject to their constitutional provisions” in Article III, which would thus read:

“The parties, individually and in cooperation with each other, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid will maintain and develop, subject to their constitutional provisions, their capacities to resist armed attack.”

Fujiyama said this language represented minimum of what Japanese would need to be able to meet charges that obligations assumed under treaty exceeded what Japan can legally assume under Article IX of its constitution. He said that opposition has already singled out Vandenberg resolution language for special questioning and attack, and in order to prove that Japan has not exceeded limits set by its constitution, very least that would be necessary was clause to effect that action taken (in this case, “maintaining and developing capacity to resist armed attack”) would be subject to constitutional provisions. Fujiyama stressed that GOJ would have very much preferred and still wanted to have separate article or at least language referring to limitations of their constitution, but in view of my repeated explanations that such language was absolutely impossible for us to accept, GOJ was now prepared insert Yamada phrase in Article III which parallels agreed language on constitutional provisions in Article V. He said this was “utmost” Kishi and he could do to meet us.

I strongly recommend that we accept “Yamada formula”.

MacArthur
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 794.5/6–1259. Confidential; Priority; Limit Distribution. Repeated to CINCPAC and COMUS/Japan.↩
  2. Document 73.↩
  3. Document 75.↩