Postwar Nuclear Policy between Japan and the United States

1954年3月1日，美国在南太平洋比基尼岛进行核试验，一艘日本渔船“福号”（Daigo Fukuryu Maru）受到辐射。在这次事件之后，美国和日本都出现了一场核政策辩论，即为了对抗共产主义对美国核试验的宣传和日本的反美运动，应该将和平用途的核能，特别是核反应堆引入日本。比基尼事件发生后不久，美国国家安全委员会行动协调委员会就采取了这一政策，并开始制定一系列针对日本的战略计划。1955年1月，当时的日本电视网络公司社长柴田英敏与《读卖新闻》的老板、后来的日本原子能委员会首任会长松太郎一起，在《读卖新闻》上展开了宣传和平利用核能的宣传运动。柴田和Shoriki显然是在一起反对日本的反核运动和反美活动。他们于5月邀请了通用动力公司总裁约翰·霍普金斯、加州大学伯克利分校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开发部主任劳伦斯·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是得到美国政府的支持，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.