Japan to Harbor Nuclear-Powered Carrier

AP ^ | Oct. 27, 2005 | LOLITA C. BALDOR

[BladeLWS]

FINALLY! I bet the Navy side of the Pentagon is dancing tonight!

[FreedomNeocon]

Note to North Korea, who according to them "we are still technically at war with".

Keep it up and you'll see a fully nuclear capable Japan.

[SamAdams76]

The United States and Japan are allies.

[Americanwolf]

IF they Kitty Hawk is coming out of Japan... and a nuke is going in... it has to be the Nimitz. The Navy has a habit of putting the oldest carriers there... Looks like my old ship is going overseas...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Looks like the Japanese will take a carrier for our Marines on Okinawa.

[adamsjas]

Hopefully 50+ years after the fall of Baghdad we will be having these same discussions about our bases in Iraq.

Everybody is in a hurry to leave. We should be endevoring to stay there just as long as we stayed in Japan and Germany and brought stability to those countries.

[Squantos]

PING

[Phocion]

Well, who knows. The only reason the Navy has a "habit of putting the oldest carriers there" is because there hasn't been a conventionally powered supercarrier built since the 60's. Any carrier based out of Japan had to be old.

[DTogo]

Though American troops have been based in Japan since the end of World War II, the Japanese public has long been wary of a U.S. nuclear presence because of concerns about possible radiation leaks.

That's too funny! Japan has radiation leaks out of it's own reactors almost monthly, including one in 1999 where workers were using buckets to transfer radioactive materials.

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)

[magslinger]

Ping

[Americanwolf]

good point.... but I'll still put my money on the Nimitz... :)

[Last Dakotan]

IF they Kitty Hawk is coming out of Japan... and a nuke is going in... it has to be the Nimitz.

Nimitz...hmmm. Wasn't he the guy who maybe led the USN in a long and bloody fight in the Pacific against an aggressor nation sometime ago. Can't remember who that nation was though. /sarc

[Americanwolf]

Won't it be Ironic, Don't ya think! :)

[adamsjas]

Won't it be Ironic, Don't ya think! :)

More like a slap in the face to the Japaneese. I'm not sure thats wise if we want to keep a base there.

[Americanwolf]

Yeah, I could see it being an insulting gesture to the Japanese, but I also don't think they current generation will see it as much of affront as the the previous generations might have.

[Laz711]

I don't know, the Nimitz is in San Diego, and, with the fall of the USSR and all of that, many of the east coast subs and ships have been moved to the West coast. When I was in Guam on the USS San Francisco, I saw many east coast based boats coming through on WESPAC!!!! They came from Norfolk to the Orient, because there is nothing in the Atlantic to do. I think it will be one of the Norfolk carriers that will move there, the Truman, or the Ike. But of course that is just my opinion.

[Laz711]

Every time a nuke ship pulls into Japan (subs and carriers) there is always their version of the EPA taking samples of the waters to see if we are dumping radioactive water into their waters, as well as protesters that are always there, warning about the evils of US nuclear power, etc. etc. Of course they don't really look at the safety rating that the Navy Nuke program has compared to, say, their own horrible nuke power programs.

[Americanwolf]

the kitty hawk and constellation were both in san Diego too, and the Kitty replaced the Independence I believe.. I figure the logical rotation would have come out of San Diego.. It will be interesting to see..

The Trueman would really be an insult though.. since it was he who decided to drop the bomb on Japan...

Interesting very interesting...

[Laz711]

Very true, I forgot that....I guess that should leave out the Nimitz too, since he was the Fleet Admiral on ol'Miss when they surrendered to him. The San Diego ships are Nimitz and Stennis...the Washington ships are Lincoln and one other (I think), and let's not forget the Big E, which isn't due to be decommissioned until at least 2012 (her 50th year). Who knows......