Judicial independence infringed in case over U.S. military base
(From The Japan Times May 3 issue)

司法の独立が侵された砂川裁判

Documents unearthed at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration show that the United States exerted pressure on Japan after a district court made a historically famous 1959 ruling that the U.S. military presence in Japan violated principles of the war-renouncing Constitution. The pressure worked and the Supreme Court overturned the ruling. This incident provides food for thought on how a nation's judiciary should maintain its independence.

Seven people were arrested in July 1957 after they entered the U.S. Tachikawa base in Tokyo while demonstrating against a land survey for base expansion. The Tokyo District Court acquitted the seven March 30, 1959, ruling that U.S. forces in Japan provided a "war potential" prohibited by Article 9 of the Constitution.

A March 31, 1959, telegram to the U.S. State Department from U.S. Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II shows that in a meeting with Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama earlier that day, the ambassador urged Japan to appeal the case directly to the Supreme Court, skipping the Tokyo High Court. The government did so.

An April 24, 1959, telegram from MacArthur to Washington shows that in a private conversation, Supreme Court Chief Justice Kotaro Tanaka told MacArthur that the case would be given priority. On Dec. 16, 1959, the top court ruled that the Constitution did not prohibit provision of security by a foreign country, and that the judiciary should not pass judgment on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty since it had a highly political nature that concerned Japan's very existence. Thus it ordered a retrial and the seven were eventually found guilty.

Such astounding contact between a chief justice and a foreign diplomat is a reminder that people in the judiciary must strive to do their utmost to maintain their independence.

「米軍駐留は憲法違反」とする1959年の東京地裁判決に対し、米政府が圧力をかけたことが4月29日、機密指定解除された米公文書から分かった。この圧力により同判決が覆されたと判明した今、司法の独立の重要性が問われている。

1957年7月、東京都砂川市（現立川市）で米軍立川基地拡張反対派が敷地内に立ち入ったとして逮捕され、7人が起訴。東京地裁は1959年3月30日、米軍駐留は憲法第9条違反の「戦力の保持」に当たるとして7人を無罪とした。

翌日にマッカーサー米駐日大使から国務省にあてられた電報によると、大使は藤山愛一郎外相と会談、最高裁への跳躍上告を促し、日本政府はこれを受け入れた。最高裁は12月16日、日米安保条約は高度の政治性を有し国家存立の基本にかかわるため、司法判断の対象から外すべきだとして一審判決を破棄、差し戻し、7人は有罪となった。