Japan upset by surprise visit of U.S. nuclear sub

Stars and Stripes ^ | November 12, 2008 | Stars and Stripes and wire reports

[uptoolate]

Obama’s fault.

[Doofer]

They have a good point.. they might have sunk the damned thing.. Who knows it could have been chinese or North Korean that sub.. The Uss Providence must have a crew of democrats.. you know.. incompetants..

I'm pretty sure they notified the Japanese government, they just didn't notify in a timely fashion.

That's why I'm guessing it was a medical emergency of some sort.

[blam]

"Los Angeles class, I’m going with removing a crew member. Medical emergency perhaps."

They don't need to come to port for that and violate international agreements...A medical evacuation could have occurred at sea. There's more to this story...

[WoofDog123]

actually, we won that war decisively, and recountructed that country economically and politically.

the US doesn’t want to annoy a country that generally aligns with us on defense. SOFA’s aren’t meant to be publicly flaunted, unless you don’t like SOFA.

[WoofDog123]

once it became public that the sub had docked, they HAD to bitch for domestic political reasons, regardless of whatever communication had taken place privately.

Kind of like when US pols bitch about ‘fair’ trade with china, or ‘bitch’ about a strong dollar.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I understand that.Still they just need to tell the anti Nuke crowd to take a powder.

[OA5599]

Possibly. Sometimes it is just a mistake. If I remember correctly, they require 24 hrs notice if a nuclear powered ship is to berth there. While I was in the navy, I recall one time that there was a “mistake” where a ship pulled in prior to the 24 hrs notice.

Our bases are in Sasebo and Yokosuka, and they both serve nuclear ships. Yokosuka has heavy maintenance facilities. Since the USS Providence pulled in for merely two hours, it does sound like a maintenance issue. Possibly a personnel tranfer, although they usually use small boats for that.

The Japanese also have stringent rules on radiation surveys and postings. Most ports we put up yellow and magenta ropes with radiation warning signs around the dock adjacent to the reactor compartment. That was not allowed in Japan. They also did the radiation surveys and water sampling either in tandem or instead of us. I forget.

[GATOR NAVY]

Location, location, location. It all depends on where the sub is and the nature of the emergency.

[WellyP]

Or, did they just deliver someone from N. Korea, a very important someone?