United States Fleet Activities Sasebo
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| United States Fleet Activities Sasebo | |
|---|---|
| Sasebo, Japan | |
 FA Sasebo logo |
|
| Type | Military Base |
| Built | |
| In use | |
| Controlled by | Japan United States |
U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a United States Navy naval base, in Sasebo, Japan, on the island of Kyūshū. It provides facilities for the logistic support of forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the US Pacific Fleet and designated tenant activities.
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[edit] History
Sasebo has been an important naval base since 1883, when Lieutenant Commander Heihachiro Togo nominated the tiny fishing village to form the nucleus of a mighty base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1905 ships of the Japanese Navy under Admiral Togo sailed from Sasebo to take on the Russian Baltic Fleet. Admiral Togo's victory at the Battle of Tsushima is a classic in naval history.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had some 60,000 people working in the dock yard and associated naval stations at the peak of World War II, outfitting ships, submarines and aircraft. In those days, just as today, Sasebo was a favorite liberty port for navy personnel.
In September of 1945, the U.S. Marine Corps' Fifth Division landed at Sasebo, and in June 1946, U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo was established.
When war broke out in Korea three years later, Sasebo became the main launching point for the United Nations and the U.S. Forces. Millions of tons of ammunition, fuel, tanks, trucks and supplies flowed through Sasebo on their way to the U.N. Forces in Korea. The number of Americans in Sasebo grew to about 20,000; and some 100 warships and freighters per day swelled the foreign populations here still more.
After the Korean war ended, the Japan Self-Defense Forces were formed, and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces ships began to homeport in Sasebo. The U.S. Fleet Activities continued to support ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. Service Force ships as well as minecraft made Sasebo their homeport.
The U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo provided heavy support to the expanded Seventh Fleet during the years of war in Southeast Asia. Repair work done by Japanese shipyards in Sasebo was then, and is still today, equal to the best in the world. In the mid-seventies, the U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo became the Naval Ordnance Facility Sasebo, and fleet visits dwindled to a very low level.
On 4 July 1980, this trend was reversed when U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo regained its name, and Seventh Fleet ships were once again forward-deployed to Sasebo.
U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo played a vital logistics role in Operation Desert Shield/Storm during 1990–91, by serving as a supply point for ordnance and fuel for ships and Marines operating in the Persian Gulf theater.
[edit] Role in maintenance of US nuclear arsenal
Sasebo has been used by the United States to host nuclear arms, according to Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin, and William Burr writing for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in early 2000. [1] [2] This is despite the Japanese Constitution being explicitly not just anti-nuclear weapons, but anti-war. Whether the site is currently used for this purpose is unknown, as great secrecy surrounds the United States' siting of nuclear arms bases.
"There were nuclear weapons on Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima, an enormous and varied nuclear arsenal on Okinawa, nuclear bombs (sans their fissile cores) stored on the mainland at Misawa and Itazuki airbases (and possibly at Atsugi, Iwakuni, Johnson, and Komaki airbases as well), and nuclear-armed U.S. Navy ships stationed in Sasebo and Yokosuka." In 2005, a peaceful protest was held outside the base when the nuclear-powered carrier USS John C. Stennis took liberty in Sasebo.
"It is true that Chichi Jima, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa were under U.S. occupation, that the bombs stored on the mainland lacked their plutonium and/ or uranium cores, and that the nuclear-armed ships were a legal inch away from Japanese soil. All in all, this elaborate strategem maintained the technicality that the United States had no nuclear weapons 'in Japan.'"
[edit] Current status
Sasebo is currently home to:
- USS Essex (LHD-2)
- USS Tortuga (LSD-46)
- USS Juneau (LPD-10)
- USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49)
- USS Guardian (MCM-5)
- USS Patriot (MCM-7)
- USS Safeguard (ARS-50)
and some 5,600 Americans as part of the forward-deployed naval forces.
