Japanese were also against US neclear-powered carriers.

Yokosuka groups rally against basing
U.S. nuclear-powered carriers at city
By Steve Liewer and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan -- Labor and environmental groups want the
city of Yokosuka to stand against future basing of a nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier at this installation, even though the U.S. Navy says
such a move isn't planned at present.

The group -- whose name translates roughly to "Citizens' Group
Concerned About Yokosuka Becoming Home Port for U.S. Nuclear-powered
Aircraft Carriers" -- presented a petition with 72,445 signatures to
city officials Monday, a city spokesman said.

The petition asks Yokosuka Mayor Hideo Sawada to quash a long-delayed
$10 million extension of the base's Piedmont Pier. Planned since 1989,
the project would allow the base to better accommodate U.S. Navy
supercarriers. The petition also asks him to oppose the permanent
placement of any nuclear carriers in the city, which is home to the
Navy's largest overseas base.

"We must convey the voices of people in Yokosuka and Japan who oppose
future plans to make Yokosuka a home port for nuclear-powered
carriers," said Masahiko Goto, one of the group's leaders.

Cmdr. James Graybeal, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Japan, said
the Navy is not considering any such move.

"There is no plan to forward-deploy a nuclear aircraft carrier to
Japan," Graybeal said.

Graybeal said the Navy has received no word from Yokosuka city
officials about the petition.

The Department of Defense will face a dilemma over its Western Pacific
carrier battle group in the next few years. The Yokosuka-based USS
Kitty Hawk, one of only three remaining non-nuclear carriers in the
Navy's fleet, is slated for decommissioning in 2008. The other two
conventionally powered carriers, the USS Constellation and the USS
John F. Kennedy, are scheduled for decommissioning in 2003 and 2018,
respectively. Soon, DOD must decide how to deploy that battle group
after 2008.

Among the options identified by outside analysts of Navy issues:

§ Move the John F. Kennedy to Yokosuka for the rest of its
life -- a move that would be easier, following the decision last year
to man the ship with active-duty Navy sailors instead of active-duty
personnel and reservists who had operated the ship in the past.

§ Refurbish either the Constellation or the Kitty Hawk.

§ Persuade the Japanese to accept a nuclear carrier based on
its shores.

§ Move the battle group elsewhere -- most likely Guam, where
government officials recently have lobbyied for more Navy ships.

Graybeal said the Navy will have to notify the Japanese well in
advance if it decides to replace the Kitty Hawk.

"It's a very long process," he said. "There is no specific time line."

Neither the government of Japan nor the city of Yokosuka has taken an
official stand on nuclear carriers, though the Japanese public and
press have been skittish over the years about nuclear-powered carriers
and submarines visiting the country's ports.

The country's political left has lobbied particularly hard against
nuclear-powered ships. The Yokosuka chapter of the NEPA Coalition, a
national environmental group, has for years tried to stop the planned
expansion of the Piedmont Pier.

Graybeal said that project was first proposed in 1991, the year the
USS Independence replaced the smaller USS Midway in Yokosuka. (The
Kitty Hawk, larger than the Independence, uses two berths at another
pier.) It would extend the pier from 850 feet to 1,320 feet and add
other service upgrades.

The Japanese government began construction in February 1999 but soon
discovered high levels of mercury and other contaminants in the soil
under the pier from the base's days as an Imperial Navy base. Later
that year, the government began a $25 million project to enclose the
pier in a concrete sarcophagus, to keep the contaminants from leaching
into Tokyo Bay.

Shoji Shimizu, the leader of Yokosuka's NEPA Coalition chapter, said
the groups began gathering the signatures from across the country in
November 1998. He said about 40 percent of the signatures come from
Yokosuka residents, although a city spokesman estimated that figure is
closer to 25 percent.

Shimizu said the group wants to force the city to take a stand before
the United States takes any action about replacing the Kitty Hawk.

"We feel it necessary for Yokosuka to express opposition in advance
because it is too late after U.S. government makes [a] request to
Japanese government [on basing a nuclear carrier there]," Shimuzu
said. "It is so obvious, one can easily imagine that Japanese
government will not have the guts to refuse a request from U.S.
government."

Nagatoshi Esashi, the city of Yokosuka's military liaison, said Sawada
is considering the petition and should decide whether to take action
within a week. He said the city has never discussed the matter either
with the Navy or with its own national leaders.

"We follow the stance of the Japanese government," Esashi said. "We
will not make any comment on hypothetical situations."