Citizens hold rally demanding that U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier leave

Japan Press Weekly

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

Citizens hold rally demanding that U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier leave

About 1,000 citizens and other people from trade unions and peace organizations held a rally in Yokosuka on September 13 demanding that the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington leave Yokosuka Port.

The George Washington was deployed to the U.S. Navy Yokosuka Base in Yokosuka City about a year ago.

Opposition to the bringing of nuclear weapons into Japan has rapidly increased in Japan as former Foreign Ministry officials testified to the fact that Japan and the United States had signed a secret agreement allowing U.S. warships and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japan.

The resolution adopted by the rally pointed out that the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komei Party, which forced Yokosuka to accept the deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, have had to relinquish power and that the former mayor, Kabaya Ryoichi, was forced to step down after accepting the deployment in disregard of citizens' strong opposition. It also called for further increasing the struggle to revoke the agreement allowing the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier deployment and stop the ongoing "realignment of the U.S. forces" in Japan.

Participants marched in demonstration after the rally through Yokosuka's main streets, chanting, "Make public the secret Japan-U.S. agreement on nuclear weapons, rescind it, and ban the bringing of nuclear weapons into Japan."

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, Secretary-General Odagawa Yoshikazu of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) said that the U.S. Yokosuka base is being strengthened to become a forward deployment base by deploying two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers there. He also warned of the increasing danger of possible radioactive contamination. "Let us work harder to speed up the global current toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons as well as the abrogation of the Japan-U.S. secret agreement on nuclear weapons," Odagawa said.

Goto Masahiko, the leader of the Yokosuka citizens' movement against the permanent deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers to Yokosuka, said, "The deployment of the George Washington marked the beginning of the contamination of the Yokosuka Port with radioactivity." Pointing out that the amount of radioactive waste accumulated has reached a ton and that the U.S. Navy has built a facility to repair radioactivity-related equipment, Goto called for a struggle demanding that the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces agreement be revised and that information regarding the aircraft carrier deployment be made public. "We will not allow the functions of the U.S. base to be further strengthened," he added.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Inoue Satoshi spoke in solidarity with the participants. He said, "The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles was brought into Japan. Although the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Komei Party denied that nuclear weapons were being brought into Japan, they are now out of power. Let us urge the incoming government to make public the secret agreement with the United States and work together to build a truly non-nuclear Japan.

- Akahata, September 14, 2009