Anti-Nuclear Japanese Protest Battleship Arrival

About 500 anti-nuclear activists in dozens of small boats protested the arrival today of the U.S. battleship New Jersey at this port, contending that the warship is carrying nuclear weapons.

The protesters were from the Japan Socialist Party, the General Council of Labor Unions and other groups.

Police said they had deployed 3,600 officers to maintain order in this port on Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island.

Critics charge that the New Jersey’s Tomahawk missiles are equipped with nuclear warheads, which would violate Japan’s ban on allowing nuclear arms into the country.

The United States as a matter of policy refuses to state which of its Navy ships are equipped with nuclear weapons.

The New Jersey previously visited Japan in 1969 before it was fitted with the Tomahawk capability.

Two other U.S. ships accompanying the New Jersey and armed with Tomahawk missiles arrived in other Japanese ports today.

The 15,540-ton cruiser Long Beach entered the Yokosuka U.S. Naval Base near Tokyo, while the 5,770-ton destroyer Merrill entered a Japanese naval base in Kure, southwestern Japan.

The Yomiuri newspaper reported Saturday that the U.S. Pacific fleet is likely to stage a major naval exercise with more than 30 warships in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk next month.

The report, quoting unidentified military sources, said the warships would include the New Jersey and two aircraft carriers, the Ranger and the atomic-powered Carl Vinson.

The Soviet Navy held a major exercise in the Sea of Okhotsk and the northwestern Pacific earlier this month, officials in Washington said.