anti-usbase

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

800 Yokosuka citizens protest U.S. military crimes

About 800 Yokosuka citizens held a rally on January 28 in protest against the January 3 killing of a woman by a U.S. sailor belonging to the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk homeported at the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture.

First, participants paid a silent tribute to the late Sato Kazue, who was killed by the U.S. soldier while on her way to work.

One of the rally organizers, Takaura Fukuko, New Japan Women's Association-Kanagawa chair, denounced recent U.S. military crimes, including the hit-and-run case in Hachioji City in Tokyo, and the trespassing on a junior high school in Yokosuka.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Yoshikawa Haruko pointed out that recent crimes committed by U.S. soldiers are related to the Japanese government's humiliating attitude of making no protests about such cases and the existence of the Japan-U.S. Status of U.S. Forces in Japan Agreement in addition to U.S. soldiers becoming wild after their mission in the Iraq War.

She called for increasing public awareness of the need to block the planned deployment of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka.

The rally adopted a protest resolution, a copy of which was delivered to the U.S. base officer on duty by demonstrators, shouting, "Don't deploy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka!"
- Akahata, January 29, 2006