Japanese union rejected the demand on the ground that under present circumstances the U.S. cannot guarantee the safety of its ships on the high seas, .
~ U.S. VIOLATES TREATY WITH JAPAN
Six leading figures in Japants intellectual community have published an open letter in the country's biggest newspaper, the. Asahi Shimbun, demanding a statement from the government that it will not permit U.S. military forces in | Japan to use bases there for military action in Vietnam. -
‘They state that in view of the situation in Vietnam,. ‘in which the escalation of hostilities can lead to a total war between the United States and the People's Republic of China, the Japanese government should declare that Japan will never become involved in such an international struggle. - -
The letter calls attention to the fact that the current military actions undertaken by U.S. forces in Vietnam constitute a breach of the promise made by the United States in Article 1 of its Security Treaty with Japan.
Article 1 states that both Japan and. the United States ‘should try to settle international struggles through peaceful means and — that the two nations should avoid as far as possible the use of armea forces or the threat to use them. .
The signers of the letter were Prof. Masao Maruyama, Japan's leading authority on political science, Prof, Shigeto Tsuru, an
economist, Prof. Riko Toyoda, a scientist, and three critics, Shuichi Kato, Shinjiro Tanaka and Yoshio Nakano,
“