n-carrier

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Deployment of U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will serve U.S. preemptive wars

"It can't be helped," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hosoda Hiroyuki at the October 28 press briefing, in response to the U.S. Navy's announcement that it will deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka Port in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka reportedly expressed acceptance of the deployment as soon as he was informed of this by U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer on the late afternoon of October 27.

Fully aware of citizens' strong concerns regarding nuclear-powered warships, the Japanese government approved the U.S. decision without examining the U.S. plan. A government of a sovereign nation would never act that way.

Nowhere else in the world

For more than 30 years, Yokosuka has been the only foreign port that a U.S. aircraft carrier uses as its homeport. The U.S. military presence in Japan under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is much heavier than in any other part of the world. Japan's acceptance of the deployment of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will allow the U.S. forces to perpetuate this extraordinary state of affairs into the distant future.

Foreign Minister Machimura stated that Japan accepted the deployment because "it will contribute to the maintenance of peace and security in Japan and East Asia." Defense Agency Secretary General Ono Yoshinori said, "(The deployment is) meaningful for the security of the Asia-Pacific region."

However, the Kitty Hawk, a conventional aircraft carrier currently stationed in Yokosuka, was dispatched to U.S. preemptive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. Ambassador Schieffer said during an October 23 press conference in Tokyo, "The security environment here in the Western Pacific region increasingly requires that the US Navy station the most capable ships forward, working from forward-deployed positions. This posture allows the most rapid response times possible for maritime and joint forces, and brings our most capable ships with the greatest amount of striking power, if necessary, in the timeliest manner to any regional crisis."

By deploying a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a greater capability than conventional ones like the Kitty Hawk, the U.S. forces are trying to strengthen Yokosuka Port as a stronghold for preemptive wars. Their strategy has nothing to do with the "security of Asia and Japan."

Government follows U.S. demands

A conventional aircraft carrier was deployed to Yokosuka Port in 1973 with no respect for the people's serious concerns about the strengthening of U.S. bases as well as the increase in noise pollution and other base-related accidents.

At that time, the Japanese government and the U.S. forces explained that the deployment will be for approximately three years and that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier's visit to Yokosuka Port or aircraft touch-and-go exercises will not be conducted. They also promised that Japan will not be asked to cover the cost of the aircraft carrier deployment. However, those "promises" were all torn up, showing the Liberal Democratic Party's total subservience to the U.S. government.

The Koizumi Cabinet's acceptance of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, ignoring citizens' anti-nuclear calls based on atomic-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, indicates that its subservience to the U.S. knows no limit. -- Akahata, October 29, 2005