 U.S. N-carrier enters Sasebo Port Citizens of Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, expressed protest on August 21 against the entry into Sasebo Port of the guided missile destroyer USS Howard of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and the USS Lanier. Apart from Sasebo, the Guided Missile Cruiser USS Lake Champlain called at Yokosuka Port in Kanagawa Prefecture and the USS Frigate Ford called at Tokyo Port in Tokyo on the same day. At around 8 o'clock in the morning, as huge vessels carrying many jet fighters approached Sasebo's harbor entrance, people on the quay shouted, "Don't involve Sasebo in U.S. wars of aggression!" Later in the day, about 150 citizens held a rally and marched in demonstration through the city of Sasebo in protest against the port-calls. Akamine Seiken, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives, who spoke at the rally said, "The role of U.S. bases in Japan is expanding beyond the terms of the Japan-U.S. alliance," pointing out that the port-calls were made to realign U.S. military bases in Japan to be a sortie stronghold for U.S. global-scale invasions. (end) |