Serious
'resistance' by China, Japan against Project Stormfury
The
WIKILEAKS
Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD)
holds
the world's largest searchable collection of United States
confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As
of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately
1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and
diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It
is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever
published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is
updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents
released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents
released by the US State Department systematic declassification
review.
A cable from
February 1975, presents the strong opposition of the Japanese
government against US plans to transfer Project Stormfury to the
Western Pacific, as it had strong concerns about possible negative
effects in the region. As described in the summary:
GOJ
[Government Of Japan] has delivered strongly negative reaction to
U.S. proposal for transfer of project Stormfury to Western Pacific
and has expressed hope that U.S. will not introduce resolution on
this matter at ESCAP [Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific] meeting beginning Feb. 25.
The Japanese
Government responded through Eijiro Noda, Deputy General of UN Bureau
at the time. Some interesting parts:
The
Government of Japan has no objection to the effect that the typhoon
modification experiment would provide new meteorological data on
typhoons and significantly contribute toward the development of
meterology and, in particular, toward the explication of typhoon
structures and activities. However, it has not been made clear how
that rainfall or the directions of typhoons will be affected by
seeding typhoons. The Government of Japan, therefore, has been
apprehensive whether such experiment might cause other types of
damage to other regions which otherwise, would not be affected.
If such
experiments are made on typhoons in the West Pacific, which have far
more enormous energy than the hurricanes in the Atlantic, a
possibility cannot be excluded of causing other types of damage which
otherwise would not be caused. The government of japan, with its
responsibility for the life and property of the Japanese nationals,
cannot accept such an eventuality.
The
Government of Japan cannot agree, at this stage, to the proposal by
the United States Government on the transfer of the Stormfury Project
to the Pacific Ocean. if the United States Government make such
proposal, at the 31st session of ESCAP by resenting a resolution, for
example, the Government of Japan would be obliged to vote against it.
The
cable describes also some thoughts from US official to overcome
Japanese strong opposition of the matter:
Embassy
continues to believe that best tactic for accomplishing transfer of
Stormfury without risking major japanese protest is by allowing other
countries of region to seek positive consensus, including Japan, on
basis of positive benefits of Project in learning to reduce typhoon
damages.
Full
cable:
Yet, it
seems that the US failed to get positive positions from other
countries on the matter. Another cable from September 1975, reveals
strong concerns and opposition from the Chinese government too. A key
part from the Chinese response:
On july
19 and october 9, 1974, the United States Liaison Office in China
twice handed over information concerning the proposed transfer of
Project Stormfury to the Western Pacific and sought China's opinion
on the matter. We noted the indication of the United States that it
would not put the project into effect without the approval of the
countries concerned. China's departments concerned have made a study
of the proposal and our official reply is a follows: being a country
considerably affected by typhoons, China cannot approve the
conducting of the project when its consequences are uncertain.
According
to Mintpressnews
some reports indicate that “Project STORMFURY and Project Nile
Blue were some of the earliest known military operations conducted in
the name of manipulating the weather, including hurricanes.”
Also, in Wikipedia
we read that “Cuban president Fidel Castro alleged that Project
Stormfury was an attempt to weaponize hurricanes.”
Comments
Post a Comment