page_title: United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka
section_title: U.S. Navy base
hierarchical_section_title: United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka / U.S. Navy base
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34) moored at Yokosuka, Japan, circa 1952-53. Note the dusting of snow on the flight deck, loaded numerous aircraft of Carrier Air Group 102 (redesignated CVG-12 4 February 1953).A Commencement Bay-class escort carrier is moored alongside and US-built Tacoma-class frigates are visible in the background.
context_page_description: United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka or Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka is a United States Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan. Its mission is to maintain and operate base facilities for the logistic, recreational, administrative support and service of the U.S. Naval Forces Japan, Seventh Fleet and other operating forces assigned in the Western Pacific. CFAY is the largest strategically important U.S. naval installation in the western Pacific.
  Fleet Activities Yokosuka comprises 2.3 km² and is located at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, 65 km south of Tokyo and approximately 30 km south of Yokohama on the Miura Peninsula in the Kantō region of the Pacific Coast in Central Honshū, Japan.
  The 55 tenant commands which make up this installation support U.S. Navy Pacific operating forces, including principal afloat elements of the United States Seventh Fleet, including the only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, the group she heads, Carrier Strike Group Five, and Destroyer Squadron 15.
context_section_description: On 30 August 1945, Vice Admiral Michitaro Totsuka, last Japanese commander of the Yokosuka Naval District, surrendered his command to Rear Admiral Robert Carney, and the base was peacefully occupied by U.S. Marines of the 6th Marine Division, British Royal Marines and U.S. Naval personnel. Commander Fleet Activities (COMFLEACT) Yokosuka was created shortly after the occupation in 1945. As the Base became organized, the shipyard was deactivated and much of the equipment was sent to other countries as part of reparations. The repair ship Piedmont took charge of ship repair and maintenance, the hospital became a Naval Dispensary (later Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan) and the Supply Department was organized to provide support to the fleet and shore-based activities. The Public Works Department was also established.
  The best known Commander of Fleet Activities was the one who served there the longest, Captain Benton W. "Benny" Decker, who was in charge from April 1946 until June 1950. When he assumed command, the base was fairly well-organized, and Captain Decker and his staff were able to devote their time to helping the townspeople economically, politically and socially. Buildings which had once housed war equipment were converted into schools, churches and hospitals for the people of Japan.
  In May 1946, the Marines at Yokosuka were redesignated Marine Barracks, U.S. Fleet Activities, Yokosuka. In April 1947, the Ship Repair Department was organized, and the shops and dry docks were reactivated to maintain the ships of the U.S. Fleet in the Pacific. With the onset of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, Yokosuka Navy Base suddenly became very important and extremely busy.
  The U.S., still an occupying power in Japan, turned its full efforts to the support of South Korea. The Navy Dispensary was enlarged and expanded and was commissioned a U.S. Naval Hospital in 1950. The Naval Communications Facility, Yokosuka, was commissioned in January 1951. In April 1951, the Ship Repair Department became a component command. It was redesignated the Ship Repair Facility. As the major naval ship repair facility in the Far East, the Yokosuka Facility assumed a vital role in maintenance and repair of the U.S. Seventh Fleet during both the Korean War and Vietnam War.
  In March 1952, the geographical boundaries of Naval Forces Far East were changed to exclude the Philippines, Marianas, Bonin and Volcano Islands. In December 1952, the headquarters were shifted from Tokyo to Yokosuka. The expanded Supply Department of Fleet Activities became Naval Supply Depot, Yokosuka in August 1952. In 1960, the Naval Communications Facility was redesignated U.S. Naval Communications Station, Japan.
  In 1952, occupation ended and rearmament commenced, with its naval forces formally organized as Japan Maritime Self Defense Force by 1954.  Some parts of the former Yokosuka Naval District were ceded back to house a new base for JMSDF.
  On 5 October 1973, USS Midway, with Carrier Air Wing Five and her accompanying task group, put into Yokosuka, marking the first forward deployment of a complete carrier task group in a Japanese port. This was the result of an accord reached on 31 August 1972 between the U.S. and Japan. In addition to the morale factor of dependents housed along with the crew in a foreign port, the move had strategic significance because it facilitated the continuous positioning of three carriers in the Far East at a time when the economic situation demanded the reduction of carriers in the fleet. In August 1991, Midway departed Yokosuka and was replaced by Independence as the forward-deployed carrier in Yokosuka. In August 1998, Kitty Hawk relieved Independence as the 7th Fleet forward-based carrier.
  On 1 December 2005, the U.S. Navy announced that in 2008 Kitty Hawk would be replaced by the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington.  A U.S. Navy spokesman said the decision was a mutual agreement between the United States and Japan.  Hiroyuki Hosoda, spokesman for Japan's government, said, "We believe that the change (of the carriers
caption: USS Oriskany (CVA-34) at Yokosuka, circa 1952
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