Otaru City gives in to government pressure, accepts U.S. warship’s port call

   Under strong pressure from the Foreign Ministry, the Otaru City government on February 4 made an about-face and decided to accept a port call by the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet flagship Blue Ridge.

   The USS Blue Ridge will berth in the Otaru Port between February 7 and 11.

   The city on January 28 announced that it turned down a request for entry by the U.S. warship on the grounds that commercial ships will be occupying all piers during that period.

   Since then, however, the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Land, Infrastructure and Transport have repeatedly made inquiries to the city government by phone. The Foreign Ministry’s Status of U.S. Forces Agreement Division director flew to the city and discussed the matter with Mayor Yamada Katsumaro, as well as heads of the general affairs department and ports and harbors department.

   A Panamanian-registered cargo ship, which was scheduled to enter the port between February 8 and 14, informed the city that it will arrive sometime after February 18. Then, the Blue Ridge again requested the city to arrange a berth for it, and the city permitted its entry.

   The Japanese Communist Party Otaru District Committee and the JCP Otaru City Assembly members’ group on February 4 made representations to the city government urging it to withdraw the permission.

   The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo), Hokkaido Gensuikyo, and Otaru Gensuikyo on the same day also made representations to the mayor requesting him to put priority on merchant ships’ use and refuse port calls by U.S. warships without giving in to government pressure.

   They furthermore called on the city to adopt a system suitable to a city that has declared itself a peaceful city free of nuclear weapons and similar to the Kobe Formula that requires every warship to prove that it is not carrying nuclear weapons when coming into the port.

   The U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet Aegis destroyer John S. McCain will enter the neighboring Ishikari Bay New Port on February 6.
- Akahata, February 5, 2008