By Mark J. Ravina, University of Texas
In June 1960, Japanese Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke faced a diplomatic and public relations disaster. US president Dwight Eisenhower’s press secretary, James C. Hagerty, had arrived at Haneda Airport to coordinate the final details of Eisenhower’s upcoming visit, the first-ever visit to Japan by a sitting US president. And yet, what was deemed as Kishi’s expected career triumph had turned into a catastrophe. Read on to find out why.
The New US-Japan Security Treaty
The new US-Japan security treaty was going to be the high point of Kishi Nobusuke’s career. It would replace the earlier 1951 treaty, concluded when Japan was still under US occupation.
The circumstances in 1960 were different than in 1951. The new partnership would signal Japan’s re-emergence as a fully sovereign nation and as a trusted US partner.
But things did not go according to plan. As Hagerty was driving from the airport, radical college students and communists breached the airport fence and surrounded his car. They jumped on the roof, sang the communist International anthem, chanted ‘Hagerty go home’ and smashed the car’s windows and fenders.
The violence was more theatrical than destructive. The protestors made no effort to get into the car, and Hagerty was unharmed. But he did end up being trapped in a car that was pelted with rocks for an hour, until a US Marine helicopter arrived to extract him.
The Anti-treaty Movement
Hagerty concluded that a presidential visit would be politically unwise, and potentially unsafe. It was canceled, and 10 days later, Nobusuke announced that he would resign as prime minister.
The fact was that there were many factors which had given birth to the anti-treaty movement. Factors such as the appeal of neutrality, Soviet supremacy in the space race, problems with the bases, and Nobusuke’s own past—all these factors began moving Japanese opinion away from the treaty.
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Chaos in the Diet
Across the country, rallies and petitions against the treaty were growing larger, with millions of signatures arriving at the Diet.
Ultimately, Nobusuke boxed himself in. With Eisenhower scheduled to visit Japan, the US State Department kept asking if things were OK. He responded that everything was fine. But on May 19th, he called for a vote to extend the Diet’s time in session—that extra time would be used to vote on the treaty itself.
The opposition didn’t have the votes to block the extension, but they thought public opinion was shifting their way. So, opponents of the treaty sat down in front of the Diet speaker’s office so that he couldn’t leave and reach the rostrum. Through nonviolent, non-parliamentary tactics, they blocked the vote until 11 pm, at which point the speaker—a Kishi ally—called the police and had the entire opposition carried out.
Treaty Approved
With the opposition gone, the speaker called the Diet to order and held the vote to extend the session. With the session extended, a vote was called on the treaty itself. It was approved. Nobusuke had won. It was a classic Pyrrhic victory. Nobusuke had won the battle and lost the war.
The optics of what had just occurred were horrific. The opposition had been trying to paint Nobusuke as an unrepentant warmonger, and he gave them the perfect images: police physically dragging the opposition out of the Diet.
Condemning Kishi Nobusuke
Every major Japanese newspaper condemned Prime Minister, Kishi Nobusuke, for acting like an autocrat—even the Nikkei, the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal.
Japan’s leading intellectual, Maruyama Masao, gave a hugely influential speech declaring that the question was no longer about the treaty but the survival of Japan as a democracy. He argued: “If you have a fragment of reason and conscience, you have no choice but to join with us and rise up to erase this stain from Japan’s political history.”
By this point, Nobusuke was politically dead. He didn’t know it yet, but he was finished.
And yet, with Nobusuke gone, the anti-treaty movement had collapsed, having achieved one key goal—the defeat of Nobusuke. But, ironically, it had utterly failed at the second—stopping the treaty.
Common Questions about How Kishi Nobusuke Got the US-Japan Security Treaty Okayed
The factors which had given birth to the anti-treaty movement were many, such as, the appeal of neutrality, Soviet supremacy in the space race, problems with the bases, and Kishi Nobusuke’s own past.
The opposition didn’t have the votes to block the extension, but they thought public opinion was shifting their way. So, opponents of the treaty sat down in front of the Diet speaker’s office so that he couldn’t leave and reach the rostrum. Through nonviolent, non-parliamentary tactics, they blocked the vote until 11 pm, at which point the speaker—a Kishi Nobusuke ally—called the police and had the entire opposition carried out
Every major Japanese newspaper condemned Prime Minister, Kishi Nobusuke, for acting like an autocrat—even the Nikkei, the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal.
