About 4 months before the end of my tour in Tokyo, a highly controversial incident took place that shook the very foundation of the U.S.- Japanese bilateral relations. More than likely, most people in America as well as Japan didn't realize just how critical the situation was, before it was defused by our Ambassador Mike Mansfield.
On April 9, 1981, a U.S. nuclear submarine USS George Washington (SSBN -598) accidentally rammed a Japanese fishing vessel, Nissho Maru off the coast of Kagoshima, about 23 miles off the Japanese coast. Such accidents, collisions between naval and civilian vessels, although not common, do occur from time to time. What made this collision different is that the U.S. vessel, after ramming and sinking the Japanese fishing vessel, made no attempt to rescue the survivors of the fishing boat. There was also a U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion Marine Patrol Aircraft circling over the area at the time and both the aircraft and the submarine failed to report the incident right away, like for 24 hours!
A little background is needed to understand the situation. Japan has a anti-nuclear constitution and does not allow nuclear weapons or ships carrying nuclear weapons in its waters and most certainly not on its soil. The U.S.- Japan Status of Forces Agreement which allows U.S. to have bases in Japan clearly outlines this anti-nuclear policy. According to the Status of Forces Agreement, U.S. will not transport or bring any nuclear ships or weapons into Japan or Japanese waters. This includes nuclear submarines.
The Japanese are absolutely paranoid about nuclear weapons, you can't really blame them after what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Japan is the only nation in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack! The building of nuclear plants for electrical power in Japan was and still is a highly controversial subject and cause for heated debates among political parties, especially now after what happened at Fukushima Plant during the great earthquake and tsunami. So, the idea of a nuclear submarine, possibly carrying nuclear weapons, in Japanese waters is truly cause for alarm for most Japanese.
What made this incident on April 9, 1981 even worse was that not only was it a nuclear submarine. but it failed to attempt to rescue any of the survivors, and the U.S. did not inform Japan of what happened until two days after the fact! Two Japanese fishermen perished while 13 survivors were rescued by a passing Japanese fishing vessel. The captain of the USS George Washington initially insisted that they were not aware that they had struck a Japanese fishing vessel. However, the aircraft above surely spotted the mishap and reported it to the submarine, with which it was in constant contact. Besides, the Nissho Maru was a 2,390 ton vessel, hardly a boat so small that a collision would be unnoticeable. There was something not quite right with the story coming out of the U.S. side.
This was during the cold war, and in those waters around Japan, U.S. submarines were constantly playing underwater tag with Soviet submarines. The USS George Washington was on a classified mission, following a Soviet submarine, no doubt. Was it because of the classified nature of the mission that the captain ignored the International Maritime Law and failed to rescue the survivors of the fishing vessel? It just wasn't clear exactly what happened.
On April 10, the day after the incident, the Embassy in Tokyo was suddenly bombarded with calls from various Japanese press who wanted to know what the American Embassy was going to do about this latest occurrence. Of course, the Embassy was completely in the dark! A call was placed to Yokosuka's U.S. Naval Headquarters in Japan, and the Navy initially stonewalled the Embassy, saying that they didn't know anything. However, after a while, they admitted that there was an "incident" involving a nuclear submarine southwest of Sasebo, that a U.S. Navy submarine had struck a Japanese fishing vessel and that the surviving crew members of the Japanese fishing vessel were rescued by another Japanese fishing vessel. The Embassy immediately sent a message to Washington and gave as much details as possible about the incident and asked for Washington's guidance for U.S. response to Japanese government. In the meantime, Ambassador Mike Mansfield received a query from the Japanese government asking for an explanation of what had happened.
No doubt Yokosuka was awaiting a response from Pentagon on how to respond to the Japanese, just as the Embassy was awaiting State Department's instructions on how to respond. I was working in PolMil (Polictical/Military Affairs) at the time, so I was right in the midst of it! The Japanese press, newspapers and TV were in an uproar by now and U.S. was making no response! Ambassador Mansfield asked to be briefed as thoroughly as possible with whatever information we had, then without wasting any time, he announced that he was going to personally go to the fishing village from where all of the fishermen of Nissho Maru hailed. He asked that the protocol office prepare special Japanese red envelops into which brand new, crisp yen notes were placed. The amount was not great, only a couple of hundred dollars worth of yen each, but it was the custom and the gesture that was so important, not the amount. There was an envelop for each family. Then, without waiting for word from Washington, Ambassador Mansfield set out for the unfortunate fishing village on the second day. The Japanese were somewhat taken off guard by Ambassador Mansfield's action, they didn't expect such quick reaction, they were more accustomed to Washington's speed of doing things!
Upon arrival at the fishing village, Ambassador Mansfield first went directly to the homes of the fishermen who perished. There, before the deceased fishermen's parents, he bowed deeply, deeper than their bow (this is very important, for it shows humbleness and sincerity), and offered the red envelops as a token of most sincere condolences. Then he proceeded to go to each house of the survivors and repeat the act of deep bowing and offering condolences. He was also dressed properly in a dark blue suit, the color that the Japanese refer to as "sincere blue." All of this may not sound like much to a non-Japanese, especially a Westerner. In fact it may seem trivial. But it was an extremely important act and gesture, especially coming from a person of his high position and age, Mike Mansfield was in his late 70s at the time!
It may have caught the Japanese government and public by surprise, but it also immediately defused any serious problems that may have been brewing. The videos of his public apology (bowing and offering envelops of condolences) were shown all over Japanese TV and still photos were on the front pages of every newspaper. America was forgiven! America was forgiven because their Ambassador truly and sincerely regretted the incident and offered his most sincere apology in a manner that they understood! It was amazing! Something that could have been a major international problem was gone almost in an instance!
There is an element of Japanese cultural psyche that is very unique, an element that believes that if you are sincere in your regret for the wrongful act, then you can be forgiven. In this way, those who break the law but show genuine regret for their actions, even if it was a heinous act, are forgiven. Being a Japan scholar and admirer of Japanese history and culture, Mansfield was well aware of this very unique Japanese trait. So he immediately set about doing what he did, knowing that it was the only way to calm the situation, bring things back to normal. He was right, of course.
In the meantime, there was still no response from Washington. But the Japanese took Ambassador Mansfield's actions as that of the U.S. government and did not even seek further apology or words from the U.S. government! Mike Mansfield was very popular with the Japanese and highly respected.
Ambassador Mansfield was able to get away with it. Any other Ambassador would have been chastised by Washington, perhaps even removed, if such a unilateral act was taken without Washington's prior approval. But Mansfield was a very senior Ambassador and a retired Senate Majority leader. I doubt if he even cared that Washington might get upset at his action. He just felt that he had to do the right thing, as quickly as possible. Having spent a long time in Washington, he knew only too well how slowly those bureaucratic wheels turned!
Of course none of this was mentioned in our press! The way history records that episode is that two days after the incident, the U.S. government officially apologized to the Japanese government and everything was smoothed out! No such thing! It took more than two days to get Washington's response, by then Ambassador Mansfield had defused everything!
Mike Mansfield knew Japan. He knew its customs, its history, and its psyche! He very strongly believed that the U.S. - Japan relations were the most important bilateral relations that the U.S. had in the world. That was his mantra during his time as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, our longest serving Ambassador to Japan, from 1977 to 1988.
No comments:
Post a Comment