[FreedomPoster]

I was in Japan a year ago. One of our port calls was Nagasaki, and we were moored directly across the harbor from the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries naval shipyard. I had a great view of two very modern frigates under construction, and two older destroyers being modernized/refitted.

[poconopundit]

That's great, FreedomPoster.  Nagasaki is a beautiful city.  My Japanese wife was a tour guide and took hundreds of Japanese tourists to that beautiful city.

In 1980 to 1983, I was stationed at the Naval Ordnance Depot in Sasebo City, Nagasaki-province -- about a 1.5 hour drive north of Nagasaki city.

A big shipbuilding yard is in Sasebo harbor as well, owned by SSK Heavy Industries.

Sasebo is considered to be the greatest typhoon haven in the world since the harbor contains a narrow inlet, is surrounded by mountains, and the harbor is deep enough to allow deep-draft ships like aircraft carriers and battleships to anchor out.

In the last 40 years, America has spent a ton of money building up Sasebo as a major naval port, second in Asia to our Yokusuka Naval Base near Yokohama.

Indeed, the USS Tripoli is homeported in Sasebo and is now on its way to the Persian Gulf.