Japan Press Weekly

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2014 January 15 - 21 [US FORCES]

JCP opposes deployment of US nuclear-powered vessel to Yokosuka

The Japanese Communist Party Kanagawa Prefectural Committee on January 16 released a statement in protest against the U.S. military’s plan to deploy the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Regan to its naval base in Yokosuka City in Kanagawa.

The deployment plan will “perpetuate almost permanently residents’ sufferings caused by the presence of the base,” the statement stresses.

It points out that an accident on the military vessel which is equipped with two nuclear reactors could threaten the lives and property of 30 million people living in the Tokyo/Yokohama metropolitan area.

The JCP in the statement stresses that the world current calling for peace recognizes the need to shut down the Yokosuka Naval Base, which has been used as a sortie base for U.S. wars abroad.

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In 2013, the U.S. forces’ nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines entered Yokosuka Port 15 times and stayed there 298 days, according to the Yokosuka City administration.

The number of their visits to the port is three times less than the previous year while they stayed there the same number of days.

In their operations in areas between the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, U.S. nuclear-powered military vessels are using the Yokosuka base as their hub port.