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Local assembly in Kanagawa says 'No' to accepting U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier at Yokosuka

The Miura City Assembly in Kanagawa Prefecture on November 29 adopted a unanimous resolution calling on the government to retract its agreement with the U.S. government to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at the U.S. Yokosuka Navy Base from 2008.

Miura City, a small city with a population of about 50,000, is famous for its deep-sea fishing. In 1954, many fishermen on tuna fishing boats from Misaki Bay in the city suffered seriously from radioactive fallout caused by the U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll of the Marshal Islands in the Pacific.

Recalling this bitter experience, the resolution emphasizes that citizens' anxiety over and their fear from possible accidents by nuclear-powered aircraft carrier should not be overlooked. "Therefore, the city rejects the Japan-U.S. agreement on the plan to homeport a U.S. aircraft carrier in Japan."

The resolution says, "The assembly expresses strong worries over and opposition to the agreement on homeporting the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka."

It requests that the Japanese government eliminate citizens' anxiety over the homeporting plan through tough negotiations with the U.S. government based on the Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not to possess, manufacture, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan)."

Commenting on this, Kobayashi Naoki, Japanese Communist Party Miura City Assembly member group chair, said, "It is important that the resolution was adopted unanimously. The government must move to accept public opinion so that Kanagawa will not be exposed to the dangers of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier."
-Akahata, November 30, 2005