Last week, the USS Kitty Hawk departed Japan for the last time, after a ten year deployment. For much of this period, Kitty Hawk was the only conventionally-powered aircraft carrier left in the US arsenal. She was kept in service because of Japanese anti-nuclear sensibilities; it was easier to keep a conventional carrier around than to deal with the public relations problems that deploying a nuclear carrier to Japan would present. The decision on which carrier would replace Kitty Hawk was quite difficult, as there were several options that simply wouldn't do. We have one aircraft carrier (Nimitz) named after the architect of US Pacific strategy in World War II. Another (Eisenhower) is named after the premier American General of the war. The Enterprise is named after the most famous American aircraft carrier of the Pacific theater. The Harry Truman is just a non-starter. Carl Vinson and John C. Stennis are virtually unknown in Japan, and their obscurity was viewed as a potential insult to the hosts.
That left Ronald Reagan, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. It was eventually decided that the most politic choice would be the USS George Washington; a ship named after the father of our country conferred the greatest possible amount of dignity upon its Japanese hosts. However, the George Washington is a nuclear powered carrier, and the anti-nuclear sensibility remained. In preparation for the George Washington's arrival, the Navy has apparently prepared a 200 page graphic novel.
It'll be interesting to see how this works out. Via ID.
--Robert Farley
