Posted on 05/18/2013 12:54:06 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force warships JS Atago, foreground, and JS Shimokita, at Pearl Harbor naval base, Hawaii. The superstructure of a third Japanese warship, the helicopter carrier JS Hyuga, can be seen at right. On the deck of Shimokita are ground vehicles and helicopters – shrink-wrapped to protect against salt air -- that will take part in major amphibious warfare training in southern California.
Warships from Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force have making stops at the American naval base at Pearl Harbor for more than two decades. But it’s going to seem strange, indeed, when Japanese ground troops clamor aboard this weekend.
Three of the newest and largest ships in the JMSDF arrived at Pearl Harbor on Thursday. Several-hundred ground troops from Japan’s Western Army Infantry Regiment will link up with the ships after flying in from bases in Kyushu. The flotilla will continue on to southern California, where the troops will take part in several weeks of amphibious warfare training with U.S. Marines.
Altogether, it represents one of the most ambitious military exercises of Japan’s post-war era.
Japanese troops have trained with Marines for several years, but have never operated from their own warships. The JMSDF, though highly capable, does not have any ships specifically designed to carry ground forces or to launch or support troops ashore.
Years of debate over whether to develop amphibious warfare capability ended in 2010 when China began to aggressively press ownership claims on Japan’s remote Senkaku Islands, which China calls Diaoyu. Japan has several thousand small and potentially vulnerable islands and rocky outcroppings that stretch some 700 miles southwest from Japan’s home islands.
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.time.com ...
What could possibly go wrong? ;)
Out of respect for our dead, that area should be ‘off limits’ to Japan.. Forever.
What could possibly go wrong? ;)
Nothing will go wrong. They are very capable.
There's a fleet that's going to assault Japan? Wow...to which country does it belong? When is the attack going to take place? Oh...I get it. A Japanese assault fleet arrived at Pearl. More lazy-ass headline writing from our so-called "professional journalism" corps.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
BTW I noticed they’ve dropped the JMSDF in favor of JS. More evidence Japan is finally entering the post-post war era.
I can understand the sentiment. But these are not the same people who attacked America. Should we hold with Americans forever responsible for slavery?
I know it’s a touchy subject. We should never forget. But likewise, it serves no purpose to ‘ban’ or continue to blame people who had nothing to do with it, nor share the beliefs of those who did.
Asbestos on.
Well, if you ask the NAACP, the black caucus, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters, etc. the answer is a resounding YES!
Fu@k them and the horse they rode in on.
5.56mm
I disagree. The Japanese Army is an institution, not a person. And it’s not about them anyway, it’s about the fallen. Honor the fallen, and their families are still alive.
Actually I’d much rather void the bladder on them than speak to them in any capacity. Unless they were on fire. Then I’d hold it and let them burn.
Who the hell dreamed this up?? Disgraceful!
But it’s not the same army nor the same institution. We dissolved both a while back. My White/slavery comment stands. If we hold these people forever responsible and not ourselves, that’s situational ethics...Liberalism.
I have no more problem with having Japanese Naval ships anchoring in Pearl Harbor than I do British Army personnel visiting the Pentagon.
I have watched Japanese ships come into Pearl from right on the water on Ford Island. Those ships have the rails lined with sailors perfectly turned out. You can sense their respect as they pass by.
Here is a 19,000 ton Japanese Kayuga class helicopter carrier (right), compared to US Nimitz class carrier (Washington on left) and (below) a Wasp class Amphibious Assault Ship (on right):
We could get dragged into WWIII. China, Japan, Taiwan, the Phillipines, and North and South Korea are preparing for a war in the not too distant future. I would rather we stay out of it. If they bleed themselves dry and we stay out, we will have another American century. I don't see any advantage to get into it.
We’re already dragged in...they’re called Treaties and/or alliances.
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