diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index 80184d02e7..9485eb7670 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -686,7 +686,7 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) runContainer(pod *api.BoundPod, container *api.Container, pod
 				// TODO: Clean up the previouly created dir? return the error?
 				glog.Errorf("Error on creating termination-log file %q: %v", containerLogPath, err)
 			} else {
-				defer fs.Close()
+				fs.Close() // Close immediately; we're just doing a `touch` here
 				b := fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s", containerLogPath, container.TerminationMessagePath)
 				binds = append(binds, b)
 			}