Speculation grows Japan gave Kitty Hawk more oil than declared

Sep 20 07:52 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, Sept. 20 (AP) - (Kyodo)—A Japanese peace group said Thursday it believes that Japan gave a U.S. naval ship involved in the Iraq war much more fuel than it initially declared, effectively providing illegal logistic support for the war.

Peace Depot said that the logbooks of the U.S. oil ship Pecos show it had received nearly 800,000 U.S. gallons of fuel from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force replenishment ship Tokiwa on Feb. 25, 2003, although the Japanese government earlier said the amount was 200,000 gallons.

The oil was then transferred to the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk in the Arabian Sea. The Japanese government acknowledged the transfer in May 2003. The Kitty Hawk took part in the Iraq war.

As the MSDF activities are limited under the antiterrorism special law only to a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for allied ships deployed on antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan, the indirect oil transfer to the Kitty Hawk has stirred a controversy that the oil may have been used for the war in Iraq.

But the Japanese government dismissed it, arguing the Kitty Hawk was also involved in Afghan-related antiterrorism operations and the 200,000 gallons of oil provided by the Tokiwa could be consumed by the carrier in only one day.

While it remains unknown how much of the fuel was transferred to the Kitty Hawk from the Pecos, Peace Depot told a press conference Thursday in Tokyo, based on the Pecos logbooks it has obtained, that the Tokiwa actually gave the Pecos 18,704 barrels of fuel, or 786,000 U.S. gallons, which could sustain the Kitty Hawk for a week.

On May 15, 2003, then Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba told a parliamentary panel that the Japanese government confirmed the Kitty Hawk had received about 800,000 gallons of oil from a U.S. replenishment ship.

On top of that, the voyage record also suggested the fueling point from the Tokiwa to the Pecos was at northwest end of the Gulf of Oman, a point closer to the Persian Gulf or Iraq than in the Japanese government's explanation, according to Hiromichi Umebayashi, head of the peace group.

The legitimacy of refueling missions by the MSDF in the waters has been a hot political topic in Japan and how to deal with the issue will be a top priority for the new government to be launched next week following the formal resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.