yokosuka

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Plan to homeport nuclear aircraft carrier rejected by all cities near Yokosuka

All five municipalities on the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture unanimously oppose the U.S. plan to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at the U.S. Yokosuka Navy Base located on the peninsula.

Yokosuka has been used as the U.S. Navy's only overseas homeport for its aircraft carrier. Late October, the Japanese and U.S. governments published an interim report that includes the plan to replace the retiring conventional aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk with a nuclear aircraft carrier in 2008. The U.S. Navy later announced that it will be the George Washington.

Soon after the plan was announced, mayors, assemblies, and residents of the four cities (Yokosuka, Miura, Zushi, and Kamakura) and Hayama Town voiced their opposition to it.

Expressing strong concerns about the deployment of a nuclear aircraft carrier to the city, Mayor Kabaya Ryoichi of Yokosuka City will visit the U.S. December 20 to demand that the plan be retracted.

Mayor Nagashima Kazuyoshi of Zushi City, where the U.S. Navy maintains high-rise apartments for its personnel, says that the city is opposed to any plans that will realign and perpetuate the base's functions as well as lodging more U.S. soldiers.

Kanagawa Prefectural Governor Matsuyama Fumio visited the U.S. in late October to call on the U.S. Congress and administration departments concerned to stop the plan to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka. In the Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly in December, he announced that he cannot approve the deployment plan.

On December 17, labor unions, peace and democratic organizations, and the Japanese Communist Party held a protest rally in Yokosuka City. (see separate item.)

The Shonan-Takatori 2-chome Residents' Association in Yokosuka City has adopted a resolution stating that they cannot accept a nuclear aircraft carrier. After heated discussions about the danger of radioactive leakage from the reactors, they issued the first call of opposition from a residents' association.
-Akahata, December 15, 2005