 Mayor expresses opposition to nuclear-powered aircraft carrier deployment at Yokosuka The mayor of Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, which hosts the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base, has said he is opposed to the U.S. military plan to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the base. At a press conference on February 14, Yokosuka Mayor Sawada Hideo stated, "I will request the United States that an aircraft carrier to be deployed to the Yokosuka Base be non-nuclear." On February 10 at the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Adm. Vern Clark, the U.S. Navy's chief of naval operations, revealed the plan to replace Kitty Hawk, a conventional aircraft carrier stationed in Yokosuka, by a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in 2008 or 2009. Japanese Communist Party Yokosuka City Assembly member Negishi Kazuko pointed to the increasing concerns of residents over the deployment plan as a background of the mayor's opposition, stating that the JCP will continue to urge the mayor to clearly oppose the U.S. military plan. (end) |