Thanks Slowman for the vid.
This appears to be some type of documentary about the Japanese stealth fighter...one thing is certain after watching it though.
Japan is recapturing its martial spirit.
No longer are they hesitating to link their military past to their present and future forces.
I wonder.
And please don't take this the wrong way. MacArthur and Truman both worked hard to keep Japan bottled up. The entire region at one time feared the Japanese. When I say feared, its not in the way that the region is looking at the Chinese, I'm talking about fear that turned to hatred because of their hyper aggressiveness.
Fast forward to today and we're uncorking the bottle that both the region and one of our greatest military leaders determined should remain corked for the rest of time.
Will we one day look back at this re-militarized Japan as being one of the biggest miscalculations of our time?
This appears to be some type of documentary about the Japanese stealth fighter...one thing is certain after watching it though.
Japan is recapturing its martial spirit.
No longer are they hesitating to link their military past to their present and future forces.
I wonder.
And please don't take this the wrong way. MacArthur and Truman both worked hard to keep Japan bottled up. The entire region at one time feared the Japanese. When I say feared, its not in the way that the region is looking at the Chinese, I'm talking about fear that turned to hatred because of their hyper aggressiveness.
Fast forward to today and we're uncorking the bottle that both the region and one of our greatest military leaders determined should remain corked for the rest of time.
Will we one day look back at this re-militarized Japan as being one of the biggest miscalculations of our time?
Most Japanese are pacifists in this regard (spent a year and a half there). They are well aware today that a few nukes could take them out. And, that they don't have the numbers for military service. As for their military direction, they are just trying to be prepared. It is reasonable that they have a military that can as a bare minimum, be able to do defensive missions off of their coast. The bigger worry, by far is communist-lead China. And of course North Korea offering its own kind of wild card. As mentioned in the other post, that is what that Japanese "stealth" fighter prototype reminded me of. The old Mitsubishi F-1. There doesn't appear to be much fuel capacity on the thing. Read: able to do home intercepts and drop home-made anti-ship missiles....with some resistance to X-band/Ku-band on the front.
ReplyDeleteEric Palmer
DeleteThe impression of Japan by its neighbors is very much different from the impression you got during your past stay. A twit from the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo.
http://twitter.com/UkrEmbassyJ/status/486367046284759042
(1) aircraft carrier ' #ミストラル' is initially Kuril Islands, #日本 of was purchased to protect from invasion ' carrier 'Mistral' was in goal that initially repel the invasion of Japan on the Kuril Islands. I heard this from Russia Defense Secretary at the time of people.
Yup, even Russia was fearing the Japanese invasion of the Southern Kurils BEFORE the whole "reintepretation of Article 9" controversy surfaced. Now imagine what kind of fears that Japan's other neighbors would have in this "post Article 9 reintepretation" world, where Abe regularly talking about sending in thousands of special forces troops into North Korea to rescue 40 so-called Japanese kidnapped victims livining in Pyongyang. Yes, Russia and North Korea worries about getting invaded by Japan, it is not just China and South Korea complaining about the public expression of Japanese aggressions.
Japan of 2014 is a very different place from the pre-Abe Japan you visited, a much less democratic and tolerant country run by a strong man with an iron fist who crushes peace loving doves with his bare hands, where you see the rightwingers in power regularly marching on the streets of Tokyo with Nazi Swastica flags alongside the Rising Sun flags, which Japan's neighbors call "War Criminal" flags. http://www.debito.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TokyoEdogawaSwastika032314.jpg
Yes, I understand that the silent majority(65%) opposes the remilitarization, but they are just that, a SILENT majority, while the 30% rightwingers in power act as if they represent Japan as whole and are remilitarizing Japan. So what are Japan's neighbor's options? To arm themselves to defend themselves from this non-Pacifist Japan, of course!
Germany was remilitarised a long long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThe mainstay of the complaints against it have been that Germany doesnt do enough to defend its eastern neighbors, not that its a threat to them.
There might be political point scoring against Japan, but in the long run, South Korea needs a Japan willing and able to intervene against China far more than it needs a Japan beaten down for previous wrong doings.
the politics of the region see things differently.
Deletewhy do you think we haven't seen a mighty alliance of nations formed to prevent Chinese aggression? its simple. they don't trust the Japanese.
Japan is and has been attempting to build such an alliance but memories are long. we can't understand it we can only accept it for what it is.
i stand by my statement. we might look back on a remilitarized Japan as the biggest mistake we made in the Pacific region. oh and don't point to declining birthrates as a bullwark against them either. a strong economy mixed with a high tech robotic force and suddenly troop numbers mean little when you're flying combat supersonic UAVs, underwater vehicles etc...we're trying to head that way and the Japanese are as technologically advanced as we are.
TrT
Delete> Germany was remilitarised a long long time ago.
German leaders don't vow down before Adolf Hitler.
Japanese leaders do vow down before Tojo Hideki. Rightwingers even portray Tojo as a victim of American political prosecution, and proclaims that Tojo was not guilty of any crime under the Japanese law(Which is true).
> The mainstay of the complaints against it have been that Germany doesnt do enough to defend its eastern neighbors, not that its a threat to them.
Becuase Germany doesn't threaten its neighbors.
Japan routinly threatens to attack Russia, South Korea, and North Korea preemptively over territorial and hostage disputes. Interestingly enough, Japan doesn't threaten to attack China preemptively.
> but in the long run, South Korea needs a Japan willing and able to intervene against China far more than it needs a Japan beaten down for previous wrong doings.
From the Korean perspective, Japan participating in any form represents a significant burden during a North Korea or a Yelllow Sea showdown with China, because they must divert a significant portion of their troops to guard against the SDF, as well as dispatching a number of destroyers and submarines around the Liancourt Rocks because Japan is expected to make a military move to seize the Liancourt Rocks. In addition, a Japanese special force assault on Pyongyang to "rescue" Japanese hostages during a crisis as frequently mentioned by Abe would be a disaster, because that would give China a perfect execuse to send in its troops to counter this "Japanese Imperialist" troops invading North Korea, making things far worse and prolongs the conflict.
So the official Korean response to Japan's so-called "collective defense" is "No thanks, take your collective defense thing somewhere else. You are helping by not showing up".
Solomon
Delete> i stand by my statement. we might look back on a remilitarized Japan as the biggest mistake we made in the Pacific region.
Or the US can try to build two military alliances, one involving US + Australia + South Korea + Taiwan + Southeast Asian countries threatened by China, and another one between just the US and Japan.
There will be no Asian NATO as long as the US tries to enlist Japan in the alliance, because Japan's outstanding territorial disputes with Russia, Korea, and Taiwan. It just is not possible to form an alliance with a country whom you are having a territorial dispute with, particularly severe ones with frequent coast guard clashes.
I suppose one of the differences is that all of the German border disputes were resolved against Germany and Germany hasnt sought to challenge that, for political reasons, Japan didnt face the same sort of outcome.
DeleteI see your point, I disagree, because Japan couldnt possibly be so stupid as to stab Vietnam/Korea in the back if China invaded them, but, that could reasonably be an interpretation of Japanese policy.
Its certainly in Abes best interest to resolve these issues