Posted on 08/18/2013 6:41:28 PM PDT by TexGrill
EAST CHINA SEA - Boats carrying about 20 members of a Japanese nationalist group headed back to port on Sunday after sailing near tiny islands in the East China Sea that are at the center of a dispute between Japan and China.
Members of the Ganbare Nippon ("Stand Firm, Japan") group did not attempt to land on the uninhabited islands, which are known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, but had said they wanted to send a message to China.
"We want to show these islands are under Japanese control," Satoru Mizushima, the right-wing film maker who leads Ganbare Nippon, told activists before departure late on Saturday from a port in Okinawa.
The islands are located near rich fishing grounds and potentially large oil and gas reserves.
The five Ganbare Nippon ships were surrounded by about 10 Japanese coast guard vessels when they approached within 1 nautical mile of the islands on Sunday morning. Coast guard crews in rubber boats urged them to leave through loudspeakers.
Last week, Chinese patrol boats entered Japanese territorial waters and stayed there for more than 24 hours, the longest since surveillance around the islands was increased after Japan's government purchased several of them from a private owner in September last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnews.nbcnews.com ...
Illiterate so-called "journalists".
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
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