This month, the Japan Self-Defense Forces will hold their first year ever Island defense with the United States Army in Japan. The exercise will take place in a base of Kyushu, will simulate the recovery of one of the small islands of Japan East China Sea from “hostile” forces who seized the island and installed anti-aircraft missiles. Ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, including the aircraft carrier USS George Washington will take part.
Consideration of an atlas helps explain the importance of simulation exercises on the resumption of one of these islands. Stretching more than 1,600 km from the southern tip of Kyushu and Okinawa through almost as much as Taiwan, is a chain of islands which are all Japanese, even if a small group outside
side, called the Senkaku by the Japanese, is also claimed by China.
There is a significant gap in this chain of islands between Okinawa and the Japanese island of Miyako, wide enough to provide international waterway through the chain of islands – and the main door through which the Chinese navy may go on the way to the open sea.
Known as the Channel Miyako, this body of water is becoming one of the hotspots of the maritime world’s most sensitive, with the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Taiwan. There may be more sensitive than the Taiwan Strait since the United States and other navies avoid going through it unless they are trying to be deliberately provocative.
On the other hand, Miyako Channel and adjacent waters are where the United States, Chinese and Japanese navies grind against each other, sometimes almost literally. In April, a Chinese fleet crossed the Channel on the way to the open sea. It was overshadowed by Japanese destroyers, which in turn have been buzzed by helicopters Chinese, prompting Tokyo to issue a formal protest about the harassment of its ships.
Tokyo wakes up to the fact that the southern flank of the country is essentially undefended and open to invasion. Outside the fortress of Okinawa, bristling with U.S. forces, few Japanese military (or American for that matter) are currently deployed on one of the islands. Currently, there are only about 2,000 Ground Self Defense Force troops in Okinawa and a small air force radar station on Miyako.
That may be changing. For years, most of Japanese air and ground forces were deployed on the main northern island of Hokkaido to guard against a Russian invasion and to support U.S. operations against the Soviet Far East. As that threat has diminished with the end of the Cold War, Tokyo has been gradually redeploy its troops to the west and south.
This may accelerate as Beijing is increasingly aggressive in asserting its hegemony over the surrounding waters. All summer and fall, barely a week has passed without an announcement of some changes underway in Japan’s military resources.
Japan extended its ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone), which must identify incoming aircraft, further south, near Taiwan. Japan plans to deploy E-2C early warning aircraft from Misawa in the north of Naha Air Base on Okinawa to strengthen surveillance of the southern islands. The Navy recently announced its intention to extend the submarine force to 22 (currently 16, not counting the boats of the training).
Tokyo plans to form a special maritime monitoring station consists of 100-200 men and place on the island of Yonaguni, the highest point in western Japan, so close to Taiwan that can see the distant coast on a clear day. The Defense Ministry is considering doubling the number of troops in Okinawa where he updates his basic defense plan at the end of the year. “Defending the strengths of the chain Sakishima [islands further south in the Ryukyu chain] is very important,” said Defence Minister Toshima Kitazawa.
The United States has not ignored the threat in the East China Sea and China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea. In July, three submarines of the Ohio-class ballistic missile (SSGN) surface more or less simultaneously in Busan, South Korea, Subic Bay in the Philippines and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. All three are converted Trident submarines, having been stripped of their intercontinental ballistic missiles and stuffed with Tomahawk cruise missiles – 140 per sub – armed with conventional warheads. Of the four SSGN converted three are in the Pacific.
The USS Hawaii submarine nuclear-powered attack, arrived in September in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, home to the U.S. Seventh Fleet, one more active in the accumulation of marine U.S. in Northeast Asia. The Hawaii is part of a new class of attack submarines that are configured to operate in shallow waters near shore.
As captain of the submarine was pleased to announce the stars of the Pacific and Stripes newspaper on arrival, as has the ability to maintain a “persistent presence off the shallows.” Ideal, it seems, for confined spaces in the chain of southern Japan island.
Is the threat from China seized one of the islands by force realistic? One could also say how much was it realistic to expect the Russians to invade Hokkaido? The military plan for contingencies, and that is to say that in the future, some Chinese leaders might decide that “historical documents” dating from the Ming Dynasty “prove” that these islands are really in China?
The Chinese claim that Sentaku, a small group of uninhabited islands and essentially useless they call Daioyu. It was the scene of a diplomatic crisis between Tokyo and Beijing in September involving the brief detention of a fishing boat captain accused of beating his Chinese ships against vessels patrolling the coast guard, which is just beginning to cool. The islands are uninhabited, but access is controlled by Japan Coast Guard which regularly patrol the waters.
Both parties have their own story to strengthen their claims to possession. Japan has annexed in the late 19th century, saying that nobody else in the neighborhood seemed like. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 the Cabinet has decided to erect a marker on one of the islands and formally integrated into the empire.
In recent years, some Japanese actually lived on the islands, which are privately owned and now they are uninhabited. China says its claims go back further. Among other things, they noted that fishermen in Taiwan and Fujian province and other provinces in China regularly fish the waters and herbs from the islands dating back to antiquity. It is undoubtedly true, but it is also likely that these fishermen affected Iriomoto Island or perhaps Yonakuni island or islands of Ishigaki use Japanese names for other islands East China Sea that Beijing does not recognize the Japanese territory.
It would be beneficial to China if it could occupy and fortify the most southerly islands in the chain Sakishima. They would be useful in the unlikely event of a war with Taiwan, allowing the PLA Navy to operate more easily along the east coast of Taiwan, which is honeycomb with military facilities, many dating from the Japanese occupation and fear of invasion – in the East.
While the present crisis has cooled considerably island, it has the potential to cause more problems. The question is vulnerable to exploitation by rogue elements of both sides. They are nationalists in Japan or China who sneak patrols the Japan Coast Guard and plant in the islands defied any attempt to expel them and quickly turn their mere presence on the islands in a major international crisis.
Deng Xiaoping, architect of modern China, warned against letting things “left by history” interfere with China’s economic development and modernization. But he’s been dead 13 years now, and Chinese leaders are less and less patient to leave things as they “left over by history” than they were.
Any further confrontation, either by Chinese or Japanese flags interfere in the island and raise, could mobilize the armies of China’s ultra-nationalist warriors Internet and bloggers accusing their government to sell the Japanese if it did not take strong action. Beijing is taking these messages seriously.
The potential for “incidents” from escalating into major confrontations over these islands is huge. On any given day, hundreds of Chinese fishing boats working in waters near the Senkaku. What if suddenly all converged in the waters at a time, crushing two or three Japanese Coast Guard patrol usually?
Or if that 200 “militants” (actually undercover intelligence agents), has held one of the smaller islands in the chain of southern Chinese territory and proclaimed, based on historical documents? It is significant that in the year next month, the Japanese are learning to use an island not repel the invaders.
Any conflict with China on Japanese possessions in the East China Sea will inevitably draw the United States. Article 5 of the mutual security treaty obliges the United States to defend “the territories under the administration of Japan.” This applies to the chain of islands (if it is less clear on the Senkaku dispute.)
Foreign Minister says Seiji Maehara Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington regarded the Senkaku Islands as being covered by the defense treaty.
For 50 years, since signing the Mutual Security Treaty in 1960, Japan has completed its market share by providing useful American forward bases in Japan. Never the United States had to fulfill its duty by coming to the defense of Japan. If China does make an aggressive move in the archipelago, Tokyo would have every right to use the chips.
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