US troops in Japan conduct nuclear war drills during Cold War

(MENAFN) Newly uncovered historical records indicate that American forces stationed in Japan actively prepared for the possibility of nuclear conflict during the Cold War era, according to reports based on recently declassified diplomatic documents.

The materials suggest that US troops carried out repeated training exercises simulating hydrogen bomb scenarios in Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, during the early 1970s.

These findings emerged from an analysis of the “Command Chronology” maintained by a US military command center in Iwakuni, which documents activities between 1970 and 1974, examined in collaboration with a researcher.

According to the documents, US Air Force personnel stationed in Iwakuni, located in Yamaguchi prefecture, took part in drills conducted in Okinawa from at least 1971 through 1975.

Notably, these exercises began while Okinawa was still under American control and continued even after the territory was formally returned to Japanese administration in May 1972.

Okinawa had remained under US occupation from the end of World War II in 1945 until its reversion to Japan nearly three decades later. The continuation of such drills after the handover highlights the strategic importance the islands held during heightened Cold War tensions.

Japan remains one of the United States’ longest-standing allies in the Asia-Pacific region and today hosts more than 50,000 American military personnel, in addition to a wide network of bases and defense systems spread across the country.

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