U.S. Navy to deploy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka next August

   The U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group Five commander announced on September 21 that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington will be deployed in August 2008 to the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture.

   The Japanese and U.S. governments already announced the plan to homeport a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka in 2008 as the successor to the Kitty Hawk, a conventional aircraft carrier.

   Kanagawa Prefectural Council against A & H Bombs (Kanagawa Gensuikyo) issued a statement on the same day and demanded the withdrawal of the deployment plan. The statement criticized the commander’s announcement as alarming residents in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area amid their increasing concerns over risks that the nuclear-powered warship will expose them to.

   It expressed that the majority of residents in Yokosuka and elsewhere in the prefecture do not want the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be deployed in the city by pointing out that 60 to 70 percent of Yokosuka City residents are opposed to the plan, and that lawsuits have been filed against U.S. military personnel who committed crimes against local people, including a Kitty Hawk sailor who robbed a woman and beat her to death in Yokosuka.               - Akahata, September 22, 2007