Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 26 - December 2 [US FORCES]

JCP protests US military vessel’s sudden entry into civil port in Kyoto

The Japanese Communist Party Kyoto Prefectural Assembly members’ group on November 25 made representations to the governor against the sudden entry of the U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer John S. McCain into a civil port in the prefecture.

The U.S. military vessel which is homeported at the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture on November 21 entered Maizuru Port, the northern gateway port to Kyoto.

In the representations, noting that the U.S. destroyer John McCain is used for ballistic missile defense, the JCP stressed that the U.S. warship’s entry is closely connected with a new U.S. military facility equipped with the X-band radar system which is under construction in Kyotango City in Northern Kyoto.

Pointing out that the U.S. military plans to start operations of the X-band radar system in December, the JCP assembly members’ group said that the Aegis destroyer’s sudden port call indicates that the U.S. military intends to use the northern part of Kyoto as the first line in its missile-defense program.

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On November 25, the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington entered the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa’s Yokosuka City.

Local branches of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo), labor unions, and civil groups submitted to the base a written protest. The protest document urges the U.S. military to stop using the Yokosuka base as the homeport for the George Washington. It also demands that in compliance with the Japan-U.S. agreement, maintenance of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and transfer of nuclear waste not be conducted at the base.


Past related articles:
> Kyoto residents protest sudden transport of US military radar equipment [October 22, 2014]
> US forcibly begins X-radar construction in Kyoto [May 28, 2014]