U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier stops over in Sasebo

Japan Policy & Politics, August 19, 2002

SASEBO, Japan, Aug. 16 Kyodo

The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln made a port call Friday morning in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture.

The 102,000-ton Nimitz-class vessel, with about 5,350 crew members aboard, made the stopover en route to operations in the Middle East, according to U.S. Navy officials.

The stopover is part of U.S. operations worldwide and to highlight the U.S. presence in East Asia, the officials said.

The last time a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier made a port call in Japan was in September 1997, when the Nimitz stopped over in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo.

The Abraham Lincoln, which came to Japan for the first time, plans to leave the southwestern Japan city of Sasebo on Monday morning after allowing its crew to rest and getting supplies.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) has escorted some U.S. warships entering or leaving Japanese ports.

But on Friday, the MSDF ''did not guard the carrier at sea,'' an MSDF official said.

More than 10 patrol boats from the Japan Coast Guard, which is a civilian government entity and not part of the MSDF, accompanied the Abraham Lincoln as it arrived in Sasebo.

Protesters of the port call, aboard 18 fishing ships near the port, tried to approach the U.S. carrier. But the coast guard blocked them.