JCP Shii calls for popular struggle against deployment of U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in a speech in Yokosuka City on April 2 called for a popular struggle to prevent a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier from being deployed at Yokosuka Port.

He was referring to the testimony by Admiral Thomas Fargo of the U.S. Pacific Command in a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, indicating the possible deployment of an advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka in 2008.

Shii said, "The Japanese Communist Party's long-standing warning is becoming real."

Shii also criticized the Japanese and U.S. governments for building new U.S. military housing units and making other preparations for the aircraft carrier to use Yokosuka as its home port. Preparation is also under way for the deployment of large state-of-the-art Super Hornet fighter bombers. He revealed that the Japanese government has earmarked 90 billion yen in tax money under the so-called "sympathy budget" for building new military housing and extending the pier.

In making Yokosuka the homeport for U.S. aircraft carriers in 1973, Shii said, the two governments broke the promise that there would be no new facilities, no flight training at the U.S. Atsugi base, and that the deployment would last no more than three years.

Shii stated, "It is intolerable for the two governments to plan to permanently station the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka at the mouth of Tokyo Bay.

He pointed out that Japan is the only country in the world to allow the U.S. aircraft carrier task force to use a Japanese port as their homeport. The JCP chair explained to the audience a JCP reform proposal to end the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and move away from the extraordinary state in which Japan is structured on U.S. military bases. (end)