Approved For Release 2002/01/30: CIA-RDP80B01439R000500090021-7
| MEMORANDUM FOR: | Director of Current Intelligence |
| MEMORANDUM FORSUBJECT: | Nerve Gas Incident on Okinawa |
1. The front page article in the Wall Street Journal of 18 July was the first information received on the reported leakage last week of "VX nerve gas" at an unspecified US base on Okinawa. OCI inquiries for further information have been initiated with the NMCC, DIA, and State.
2. According to a late AP ticker from Tokyo, the Sato government has asked the US Embassy for information on the alleged incident. In Washington, the Department of Defense has acknowledged that 24 servicemen were indeed hospitalized as a result of an incident at a US base in Okinawa, but has shed no further light on the nature of the problem.
3. Whether or not the incident as related in the Journal is substantiated, its mere reporting seems certain to stir up anti-US sentiment on Okinawa and in Japan proper. While not certain of how this will go, we can subscribe to the article's predictions of Japanese leftist exploitation of this issue to the possible embarrassment of the US during President Nixon's Asian tour and the scheduled visit to Japan by Secretary Rogers late this month. Japanese and Okinawan media have not yet obtained information on the incident, but extensive coverage can be expected shortly.
4. The Japanese are no less sensitive than Americans to the terrifying aspects of chemical warfare agents, and probably are a good deal more so.With their well known "nuclear allergy" as
Approved For Release 2002/01/30: CIA-RDP80B01439R000500090021-7
