Article: U.S. Builds Military Alliance With Japan, South Korea For War In The East

"Although it is not unusual for foreign planes to try to spy on other countries' war games, Japanese media interpreted the move as Russia's latest warning shot in a festering territorial dispute between Moscow and Tokyo. The incident...came just two days after Japan's foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, flew over the disputed Kuril Islands that are currently part of Russia but which Tokyo claims as its own. President Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the islands in November, infuriating Japan." [9]

The U.S. supports Japan's position that the Southern Kurils are its so-called Northern Territories. [10]

On October 27 Hillary Clinton reiterated the U.S. commitment to honoring Article 5 of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in relation to the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute with China. She made the comment at a meeting in Hawaii with Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara, who of late has also manifested renewed interest in the Kuril Islands as seen above.

Her meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea on December 6 and Admiral Mullen's meetings with Japan's and South Korea's military leaders later in the week cannot be viewed apart from the above context.

While in Tokyo on December 9, Mullen said that North Korea's "reckless behaviour...enabled by their friends in China" was the cause of the fact that "Northeast Asia is today more volatile than it's been in much of the last 50 years." In Seoul the day before he called on Japan, notwithstanding its constitutional prohibition against what is deemed collective self-defense and collective security, to play an active role in tripartite military exercises with the U.S. and South Korea.

After meeting with Japan's leading defense and military officials, Mullen said "he had 'a real sense of urgency' about the need for Washington, Tokyo and Seoul to enhance security cooperation to deter North Korea." [11] In his view, the participation of South Korean military observers in the U.S.-Japan Keen Sword exercise was "a terrific first step to broadening our trilateral relationship and deepening our collective readiness." [12]

On December 11 Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the government's National Defense Program Guidelines to be released later this month, the first in six years, will announce that Tokyo is shifting its military strategy toward "a posture that can effectively deal with possible contingencies on Japan's vulnerable southern islands and China's growing military presence."

Japan will assign increased importance to a "dynamic defense capability" for its armed forces, the archaically-named Self-Defense Forces (SDF).

The new military doctrine will "emphasize mobility and readiness to allow the SDF to respond to terrorist acts or an invasion of outlying islands.

"The guidelines will also raise concerns about the Chinese Navy's rising presence in waters around Japan."

"The proposal to create a dynamic defense capability to deal with the Chinese military presence would involve intelligence-gathering and surveillance, as well as a heightened deterrence factor by demonstrating the SDF's high capabilities in joint training exercises with the United States.

"The guidelines will also call for a new deployment of the minimum force level of SDF members needed on the Nansei island chain between the south of Kyushu main island and Taiwan."

The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands contested by China are part of the Nansei/Ryukyu Islands, the entire group returned to Japan by the U.S. in 1971.

"An important point in the guidelines is improving mobility in order to deploy SDF members quickly to the Nansei island chain.

"This would involve using high-speed transport ships and transport planes to move SDF members based in northern parts of the country to the Nansei island chain." [13]

An appendix to the guidelines includes plans to increase the nation's submarine fleet from 16 to 22, acquire next-generation fighter jets and add to the number of Aegis class destroyers equipped with Standard Missile-3 interceptor missiles from the present four.

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