US naval base in Yokosuka attacked by rockets
Somebody tried to attack a US naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture last night:
Two explosions were heard in a residential area in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture late Friday in what is believed to be a guerrilla attack against the U.S. naval base in the port city, police said.
No one was hurt in the incident, which took place in a hilly area of the city at around 10:30 p.m., the police said.
The police said there were the traces of two rocket bombs being launched. Metal pipes, batteries and lead wires were found on the scene, they added.
Investigators are looking into whether the timing of the attack had something to do with the planned arrival of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington later this month.
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Hmm I wonder if these terrorists were fingerprinted at Narita? No? Maybe they aren’t foreigners but home grown? Egad? Japanese terrorists? It’s impossible, everyone knows only foreigners commit crimes.
Gee, we don’t get enough of the “GAIJIN”-card on this website…
Please, continue with how all Gaijin are perfectly respectable people, and NEVER commit crimes.
I would have more empathy with your sarcasm if 100% of terrorist attacks on Japanese soil weren’t committed by Japanese citizens. Ergo, fingerprinting foreigners to fight terrorism is a ridiculous rationale.
June 23, 1985. Narita. Look it up. Read. Learn something.
November 15, 1997. Niigata. Look it up. Read. Learn something.
July 7, 1978. Obama, Fukui. Look it up. Read. Learn something.
August 12, 1978. Fukiage, Kagoshima. Look it up. Read. Learn something.
August 1978. Sadogashima. Look it up. Read. Learn something.
July 31, 1978. Kashiwazaki, Niigata. Look it up. Read. Learn something.
When you’ve done studying, come back and tell us again how “100% of terrorist attacks on Japanese soil were committed by Japanese”.
Correction to #2: should be 1977, not 1997. Fat fingers. But the point stands.
“I wonder if these terrorists were fingerprinted at Narita?”
They aren’t terrorists in the colloquial sense because they aren’t inflicting terror on civilians. It’s considered a guerrilla attack (at least a tiny one) because it’s aimed at armed forces and is a non-traditional tactics intended to harass the “enemy”.
It’ll probably end up being a small club of social outcasts with pipe dreams of becoming the next JRA. (Japan Red Army, not Japan Racing Association)
“It’s impossible, everyone knows only foreigners commit crimes.”
You underestimate the Japanese. Most people are well aware of groups like the above-mentioned JRA, or Aum Shinrikyo — the only groups to carry out significant terrorist attacks on Japanese soil. Likewise, in the U.S., citizens are well aware of Timothy McVeigh, and Theodore Kaczynski (The Unabomber), and all of the abortion-clinic bombers. Fingerprinting foreign nationals does not insinuate that citizens are above scrutiny; that’s a misinterpretation of the system.
Nobody in their right mind thinks that if you expel the foreigners you expel the crime. (How many movies are there about Yakuza, after all?) However, some people do feel that foreign crime only adds to an already troubled society, however few those crimes may be. It’s a touchy issue, and I can’t rationalize their opinions because I feel the few crimes committed are a small price to pay for an international society (when you close off your country you get…North Korea…), but that’s the way they feel.
Do you consider the families of service members to be military targets or civilians?
That’s not his point.
The point is in this piece: the target is a foreign Naval base, hence the guerilla attack.
If they attacked the Hilton, which, at that moment was filled with US or whatever nation’s nationals that are there for say, a save the common house roach, then it would have been a terrorist attack.
Then you are a pathetic apologist for what is a blatant terrorist attack on an area commonly known to house children and other civilians.
You don’t get it, do you? Does everything have to be a “terrorist” attack to be bad? A naval base is a military target, not a civilian target. That is the difference Alex notes. He does not EXCUSE the attack, merely notes a difference in semantics. I’m not sure I agree with his difference – doesn’t a state of war have to first exist for a guerilla attack? But to immediately jump in and claim it is being “apologist” is a ridiculous stance.
You haven’t thought about this very much, have you? It’s a military base in an allied nation. Therefore it is inordinately populated by non-military personnel.
The nature of your tactics and the nature of your target are the difference between terrorism and freedom fighting. An attack on civilians and allied military personnel is terrorism.
If you have to ask a question (state of war/guerilla attack) then you really don’t know enough about the issue to be speaking. However, ignorance has never stopped you from posting in the past. Calling terrorists, freedom fighters, is hyperbole at its best. Anyone that would do so is an apologist for the behavior because one of those labels earns international condemnation and the other may win support.
Yup, ’s what I meant. It’s semantics. I have not expressed and will not express any opinion about this particular attack.
I would like to state generally, that all such attacks are stupid and pointless. They usually only achieve the opposite of the attacker’s goals.
Trufax – the U.S. Armed Forces bombs civilian locations which they feel are housing terrorist “nests” quite often. Therefore, by your very statements, the U.S. Armed Forces are terrorists and, in the most glorious form of irony, are their own targets! So the attack on the U.S. army base was actually a counter-terrorist attack.
I agree. This base houses many civilians and children. At the time of the attempted attack I would even say there were probably more civilians and children on the base than military personnel. There is a slight difference as you say the U.S. bombs civilian locations which they feel are housing terrorists. First of all we here at Yokosuka Naval Base we are not terrorists. We are their allies so would you go and bomb your friend’s house? The terrorists are not our allies. The Japanese may not all agree with the U.S. being here but we are not attacking them nor are we in a state of war with them obviously. Yeah we have done things to them in the past, but they have done things to us in the past , hence pearl harbor.
It doesn’t make it right for someone to try to bomb this base. I could see if we were attacking them , then yes attack back, but we are not. We attack terrorist because they attack us in case you have not heard of 9/11. The U.S. does take measures to not harm civilians, but in those situations unfortunately innocent people die. U.S. soldiers die. Hell our soldiers die protecting other countries..I would hardly call us terrorists.
It’s not even as if fingerprinting is to catch terrorists. That’s a very thinly veiled lie: the man at the Immigration Office was quite frank about it being to catch people who had been expelled from the country and were trying to sneak back in again. Could be the US system is the same, though most illegals there don’t use airports.
That sounds reasonable. I thought it funny when I moved here to Japan at the airport they fingerprinted and took pictures of everyone before me. I got up there and they didn’t do it for me. I’m not even from Japan. I mean I am Japanese (mixed with others) and maybe I look like I’m from Japan because they all tried speaking to me in Japanese in the airport and I don’t speak a lick of japanese, but my passport when she checked it was a no fee american passport. She stamped it and everything and I said is that it? confused as to why I was not doing fingerprints and pictures and she said yes and I went on my way. I thought it was maybe because I was on a government passport but other wives have told me that they had to do it. Kind of weird how that worked…not sure how fool proof it is if they are not doing it for everyone..not that I’ve been expelled from the country or anything.
It just hits me that there *are* actually U.S. bases in Japan.. I mean, I’ve been in Kanto area and I knew they exist in Okinawa, but I just didn’t really realize that it’s there, almost close to me. I guess I didn’t care much before, and now it seems very strange to me to really think about it.
Yup! There are tons of U.S. facilities in Japan. The marines in Okinawa. The army at Camp Zama, the Navy at Yokosuka..they also have other facilities around here that are basically just U.S. housing areas since not all housing can fit on Yokosuka Naval base. Once you are on the base you know it’s there obviously, but walking out in town in Yokosuka..if you don’t know it’s there, you could almost miss the entrance to the base here…although the like 20 guards standing out front in uniform gives it away a little bit but from the other side of the street you might not really see it if you aren’t paying attention! Plus that’s just the main gate. The other gate is set down this little street and if you don’t go back there you wouldn’t even know that gate was there.