U.S. asked Japan to send SDF during Gulf crisis: declassified records

In the wake of the Gulf crisis of August 1990, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush urged Japan to provide logistical support to the U.S. military via its Self-Defense Forces, despite constitutional constraints, according to diplomatic records declassified Wednesday and testimonies from former government officials.The request was directly made to then Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. Japan did not meet Bush's call to dispatch the SDF to the Gulf War, although it deployed minesweepers in the Persian Gulf as a postwar contribution -- a reflection of the strong influence the United Sta…READ FULL ARTICLE