Allies Uncomfortable With US Nuclear Policy

Update:  The nuclear armed cruise missile, Tomahawk, will be retired ahead of plans for its retirement in 2013 according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.  The Navy deployed about 300 of the cruise missiles on ships and submarines, some of which were stationed in Japan during the 1980s.  After the announced end of the Cold War, President George H.W. Bush put the warheads in storage for future use. A high level Congressional review committee recommended the warheads be refurbished and reissued based on the testimony of several Japanese diplomats says the UCS.  However, the Japanese government reviewed the testimony and repudiated it in response to questions about the weapon from their legislature and public.  Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada sent a letter to Secretary of State Clinton saying the testimony did not represent Japan's official position on forward basing of nuclear weapons.
[battleship USS New Jersey firing a Tomahawk, courtesy J. David Rogers]

{first post 2.23.10}The United State's major Asian ally, Japan, has uncharacteristically displayed displeasure with US nuclear policy {2.15.2010}. The only country to suffer a devasting nuclear attack in war, Japan allows the advance positioning of US nuclear weapons on its soil and has done so since the start of the Cold War.  However, 204 members of the Japanese Diet have asked in a letter delivered to the US ambassador for the President to declare US nuclear weapons' sole purpose is to deter nuclear attack. This policy change would rule out, for example, the use of tactical nuclear devices to preemptively destroy Iran's emerging nuclear capability or defend Taiwan from a conventional invasion from the mainland. The State Department told media that the US nuclear policy review will not contain a fundamental change in nuclear policy.  Japan is not the only nation uncomfortable with the United State's forward nuclear posture. Belgium, headquarters of the western military alliance, NATO, has announced that it would lead a cooperative effort with Germany, Netherlands, and Norway to ask for the removal of all US nuclear warheads from Europe.