REACTION TO ENTERPRISE Japan Asks U.S. To Understand

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 11

REACTION TO ENTERPRISE Japan Asks U.S. To Understand

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) TOKYO, January 22. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mr Toshio Kimura, asked for understanding today from the United States for Japanese feelings about visits by nuclear-powered surface warships like the carrier Enterprise.

Mr Kimura told reporters that the Japanese Government would not hesitate to approve calls by nuclear-powered craft. The Government was dutybound to agree to these visits under the 1960 Japan-United States Security Treaty, he said. However, he believed national sentiment should be taken into consideration, and he expressed the hope that in the interests of Japan-United States friendship the United States would understand the meaning of the reaction to the visit of the Enterprise. The Enterprise and the nuclear-guided missile frigate, the Truxtun arrived in Sasebo on Friday, January 19. They are leaving tomorrow to join the Seventh Fleet In service in the Gulf of Tonkin. In Sasebo, where a small radical student faction, the Sampa Rengo, began rioting last Wednesday, January 17, two days before the Enterprise arrived, the Mayor, Mr Ichizo Tsuji, called for a “cooling-off period” before any future visits by the Enterprise.

The four days of Sampa Rengo rioting had produced much chaos, he told a press conference, and it had not been desirable for the city. He hoped the Government would take this into consideration when approving visits by nuclear-powered craft in future.

He had been shocked by the clashes and by the bloodshed which resulted from them, and he hoped the feelings of the citizens of Sasebo would receive consideration. The mass circulation newspaper, “Asahi Shimbun,” reported that the sympathy which developed in Sasebo among the townspeople for the demonstrators had been a feature of the final day of rioting yesterday. In a report today from its Washington correspondent, Eiji Tominomorl, the “Asahi Shimbun” said the United States could not possibly be paying this high price in worsening Japanese feelings simply to give sailors shore leave in Japan. “Actually the United Siates strategic aim is to establish a record of free entry of

nuclear-powered warships, with nuclear armaments, ii. the future. “The United States began with calls by nuclear-powered submarines. A call by the nuclear-powered destroyer Long Beach is now considered only a matter of time. “The ultimate United States aim, it is strongly thought, is Japanese port calls by Polaristype submarines which for the United States deterrent force in Asia, along with nuclear bases on Okinawa and Guam.” The “Asahi Shimbun's* Washington correspondent described the visit by the Enterprise as an important stage in this process, and said that permission for it had been sought “tenaciously" by the United States Government.