June 5, 2024

A citizens’ group in Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture on June 4 protested blank-fire shooting drills the U.S. military conducted for the first time in the waters adjacent to the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base.

Amid the sound of machine gun fire every few minutes, the “Yokosuka Peace Flotilla” launched two protest boats. Japanese Communist Party Yokosuka City Assemblymember Omura Yoko was also on board one of the boats.

Omura and the protesters on board held a banner that read, “Stop blank-fire shooting drills!” near the No.12 berth where “hypothetical invasion ships” were training.

Niikura Hiroshi, a member of the peace flotilla, said, “Many Yokosuka citizens are concerned that military exercises that involve shooting, even if they are with blanks, are being conducted in waters that are not exclusively used by the U.S. military. The fact that the U.S. forces are carrying out such drills means that they are worried about being attacked.”