Postwar Nuclear Policy between Japan and the United States

1954年3月1日，一艘日本渔船“大悟丸”号在南太平洋的比基尼岛遭受了美国核试验的辐射。事件发生后，美国和日本都出现了一场核政策辩论，即应该将一般用于和平目的的核能，特别是核反应堆引入日本，以对抗共产主义者反对美国核试验的宣传和日本的反美运动。美国国家安全理事会的行动协调委员会在比基尼事件发生后不久就采取了这一政策，并开始为日本制定广泛的战略计划。柴田英寿当时是日本电视网络公司的一名执行官，他于1955年1月在《读卖新闻》上与《读卖新闻》的老板、后来的日本原子能委员会第一任主席松太郎·堀木一起开始了他的新闻宣传活动，以促进和平利用核能。柴田和Shoriki显然是在共同打击日本的反核运动和反美活动。5月，他们邀请了通用动力公司总裁约翰·J·霍普金斯、伯克利加州大学的诺贝尔奖得主欧内斯特·劳伦斯和美国原子能委员会反应堆发展部主任劳伦斯·哈夫塔德。据报道，他们在东京的会谈给许多日本人留下了深刻印象。本文认为，读卖新闻集团的活动实际上得到了美国政府的支持，是在美国外交政策的框架内进行的。

In March 1st 1954 a Japanese fishing vessel, Daigo Fukuryu Maru, suffered from radiation exposure from an American nuclear test in Bikini in the South Pacific. After this incident there appeared both in the US and in Japan a nuclear policy debatSe that the nuclear energy for peaceful purpose in general, and nuclear reactors in particular should be introduced into Japan in order to counter the communitsts' propaganda against American nuclear tests and anti-American movements in Japan. The Operation Coordinate Board of the US National Security Council adopted that policy very soon after the Bikini Incident, and started planning a wide range of strategic programs for Japan. Hidetoshi Shibata, then an executive of the Nippon Television Network Corporation, started his press campaign in January 1955 in the Yomiuri Shimbun with Matsutaro Shoriki, the owner of the Yomiuri Shimbun and later the first president of the Japanese Atomic Energy Commision, for promoting nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Shibata and Shoriki apparently were working together to fight against anti-nuke movements and anti-American activities in Japan. They invited in May John J. Hopkins, President of General Dynamics Corporation, Nobel laureate Ernest Lawrence from the University of California at Berkley, and Lawrence Haftad, director of the division of reactor development of the American Atomic Energy Commision. Their talks in Tokyo were reported to have impressed many Japanese. This paper shows that Yomiuri Shimbun group's activities were in fact supported by the US government, and were done within the framework of the US foreign policy.