Japan Press Weekly

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2008 September 17 - 23 [US FORCES]

Yokosuka citizens: Stay away, George Washington!

About 200 people marched in demonstration through Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture on September 21 against the planned deployment of the .U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington to the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base.

Hatano Kimie and Ito Masako, both Japanese Communist Party candidates for the House of Representatives, as well as JCP Yokosuka City Assembly member Negishi Kazuko took part in the action.

Participants criticized the George Washington’s deployment on the grounds that safety measures are yet to be established even after a fire broke out on the George Washington in May and the matter of suspected leakage of radioactivity from U.S. nuclear-powered submarines entering Japanese harbors came to light.

At a rally held prior to the demonstration, Organizing Committee Chair of this event Maeda Noriko called for citizens’ resistance, saying, “We want to neither suffer from radioactive contamination nor have a supporting role in foreign wars.”

A woman passing by the demonstrators said, “We want to leave our children a Yokosuka without radioactive accidents or U.S. servicemen’s crimes. We don’t need any warships.”