Japan Undertakes Biggest Military Buildup Since WWII; ‘Landmark’ Moment in Pacific History Underway
Tue 11:16 am +01:00, 25 Oct 2022 1
Japanese helicopter carrier, Izumo, which is being converted to carry F-35s
Jack Davis – Western Journal Oct 23, 2022
Amid fear of what China might do in the coming years, Japan is reaching out to turn a former enemy into an ally while increasing its military spending.
On Saturday, World War II foes Australia and Japan signed a security agreement to share intelligence and assist each other. The deal was inked by Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida and Anthony Albanese in the western Australian city of Perth, according to the Voice of America.
“This landmark declaration sends a strong signal to the region of our strategic alignment,” Albanese said, according to VOA.
Ken Kotani of Nihon University, an expert in the history of Japanese intelligence, called the deal “an epoch-making event,” VOA reported.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Japan is rebuilding its military in a way not seen since before World War II to prepare for what some policymakers fear is an inevitable showdown with China.
The Japanese Coast Guard has upgraded its operations with a new MQ-9B SeaGuardian drone with more early-warning aircraft soon to be deployed, according to DefenseNews.
Japan’s government “has the wind at its back and will use that to do whatever it can,” Takashi Kawakami, a professor at Takushoku University in Tokyo, said, according to Reuters.
Officials and analysts say that 2027, the next Communist Party Congress in China, could be the year China matches its bellicose rhetoric on Taiwan with action. China claims Taiwan is rightfully part of the mainland. The self-governing island became the home of the former Nationalist government when the Communists won China’s civil war in 1949.
“There are different shades of opinion, but generally, government officials share the same view of the significance of 2027,” Reuters quoted a senior Japanese government official it did not name as saying.
Japanese officials fear any invasion of Taiwan will touch Japanese islands near Taiwan, much as Chinese missiles came within 100 miles of those Japanese-held islands when China was erupting in protest over the visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
“If Japan can strengthen its defense capability … then China’s calculation to attack U.S. forces on Japan will be quite different, the cost and risk of a Taiwan operation will be quite high,” Yasuhiro Matsuda, an international politics professor at Tokyo University and former Ministry of Defence senior researcher, said, according to Reuters.
Kishida has called for increased spending for the Japanese military to buy longer-range missiles and new jet fighters.
He also is forging diplomatic ties with Australia, as noted by VOA.
I was of the opinion that Japan was still a US army base more or less. I’d have thought that anything it did was US designed. I remember as a kid, reading one of my Dad’s books, “The Knights of Bushido”, pictures of tied prisoners being bayonetted. There is no love lost between China and Japan. Sorry for this nothing comment.