日中関係

The U.S.
-Japan Security Treaty and the Islands

The inclusion of the Senkakus (Diaoyus)
in the Okinawa Reversion Treaty under the definition of "the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands" made Article II of the Treaty applicable to the islands.
Article II states that "treaties, conventions and other agreements concluded between Japan and the United States of America, including, but without limitation the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America ....

become applicable to the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands as of the date of entry into force of this Agreement.
" Using "Okinawa" as shorthand for the territory covered by the Treaty, Secretary of State Rogers stated in his testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee that the Security Treaty "becomes applicable to Okinawa" the same as applied to the Japanese home islands.
Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard, in his testimony, stressed that Japan would assume the "primary responsibility" for the defense of the treaty area but that the Security Treaty was applicable.

In short, while maintaining neutrality on the competing claims, the United States agreed in the Okinawa Reversion Treaty to apply the Security Treaty to the treaty area, including the Senkaku (Daioyu) islands.
It also should be noted that in ratifying the Treaty, the Senate did not act on the advice of several committee witnesses that it include in the instrument of ratification reservations concerning the Senkakus.
Moreover, the Security Treaty itself declares in Article V that each party would act "in accordance with its constitutional provisions and processes" in response to "an armed attack ...
in the territories provisions and processes" in response to "an armed attack ...
in the territories under the administration of Japan.
" "Administration" rather than "sovereignty" is the key distinction that applies to the islands.
Since 1971, the United States and Japan have not altered the application of the Security Treaty to the islands.

Larry A.
Niksch
is a specialist in Asia Affairs in the foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress.
This is reprinted with permission from the CRS Report for Congress September 30, 1996 (96-798F).