Prelude to Okinawa: Nuclear Agreements and the Return of the Ogasawara Islands to Japan

Diplomacy, like law, is very much based on precedents. In the case of the US' return of administrative rights over Okinawa to Japan in May 1972, two particularly important precedents were at work--the return of the Amami Islands, just north of Okinawa, in December 1953, and of the Bonin, or Ogasawara, Islands in June 1968. Like Okinawa, both island groups were administratively separated from Japan by Article 3 of the 1951 allied Treaty of Peace with Japan whereby the US gained administrative rights over them while Japan retained "residual sovereignty." Here, Eldridge examines the impact of the agreement on US-Japan relations, particularly its effect as a precedent for the reversion of Okinawa.