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Japan’s military, among world’s strongest, looks to build
https://ktar.com ^ | Dec 5, 2021, 9:09 PM | ap

Posted on 12/06/2021 5:09:11 AM PST by RomanSoldier19

Dozens of tanks and soldiers fired explosives and machine guns in drills Monday on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a nation that is perhaps the world’s least-known military powerhouse.

Just across the sea from rival Russia, Japan opened up its humbly named Self Defense Force’s firing exercises to the media in a display of public firepower that coincides with a recent escalation of Chinese and Russian military moves around Japanese territory.

The drills, which foreign journalists rarely have a chance to witness, will continue for nine days and include about 1,300 Ground Self Defense Force troops. On Monday, as hundreds of soldiers cheered from the sidelines and waved unit flags, lines of tanks shot at targets meant to represent enemy missiles or armored vehicles.

The exercises illuminate a fascinating, easy-to-miss point. Japan, despite an officially pacifist constitution written when memories of its World War II rampage were still fresh — and painful — boasts a military that puts all but a few nations to shame.

And, with a host of threats lurking in Northeast Asia, its hawkish leaders are eager for more.

(Excerpt) Read more at ktar.com ...


TOPICS: Japan; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ccp; china; japan; russia; waronterror
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1 posted on 12/06/2021 5:09:11 AM PST by RomanSoldier19
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To: RomanSoldier19

No choice-know why?


2 posted on 12/06/2021 5:12:51 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: RomanSoldier19

Where is Godzilla when you need him.


3 posted on 12/06/2021 5:50:27 AM PST by kvanbrunt2
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To: RomanSoldier19
Mishima did not die in vain

A life in our chapters...from the final scene


4 posted on 12/06/2021 6:01:05 AM PST by spokeshave (We would be ahead by banning fossil fools, like Biden, Pelosi, Feinstein, Schumer, Leahy, etc.)
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To: RomanSoldier19

China has awakened a sleeping bear.


5 posted on 12/06/2021 6:03:48 AM PST by Huskrrrr (Alinsky, you magnificent Bastard, I read your book!)
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To: RomanSoldier19

——1,300 Ground Self Defense Force troops-——

A trifle pitted against invaders numbered in the millions


6 posted on 12/06/2021 6:06:23 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: bert

——1,300 Ground Self Defense Force troops-——

A trifle pitted against invaders numbered in the millions

The 1,300 is the number taking part in the exercise. Total Japan Ground Defense force is 150,000.


7 posted on 12/06/2021 6:09:41 AM PST by Flick Lives (The future is a quiet world)
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To: Flick Lives

You made my point.

Ground defense is futile.

China must be destroyed where it is.


8 posted on 12/06/2021 6:12:24 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: bert
Those 1,300 troops you refer to are just the number involved in this particular drill. This does not imply that this is the entirety of the Japanese military!

Anybody who has read up on the Pacific War during WW2 will know that Japan is a tenacious enemy. Sure, the U.S. defeated them but it was a real slog and many thousands of our troops died horrible deaths in the process. In the end, we still had to resort to atomic bombs to finally convince them to give up.

9 posted on 12/06/2021 6:14:30 AM PST by SamAdams76 (I am 80 days away from outliving John Hughes)
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To: RomanSoldier19

......I lived just a block or two away from a Japanese Naval Base for 2 years and I worked with Japanese civilians all day every day for 2 years.

Based upon that experience, my opinion is that 1 japanese soldier, sailor or airman is worth 10 Chinese. This is because the Japanese take EVERYTHING about work serious. Thirty minutes before work they are out in the parking lot doing PT. During work they work. They don’t F around. Their loyalty and respect to/for their country is beyond question. Their military equipment is produced at home for the most part and it is second to none.

The Chinese better think 5 times before attacking Japan or Japan’s sister in the region, Taiwan.


10 posted on 12/06/2021 6:46:14 AM PST by Cen-Tejas
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To: RomanSoldier19

“Duty is heavy as a mountain; death is light as a feather”.


11 posted on 12/06/2021 7:24:25 AM PST by Noumenon (Black American flag time. KTF)
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To: KC_Lion

Ping!


12 posted on 12/06/2021 7:33:31 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: bert

A trifle pitted against invaders numbered in the millions


Getting them there will be very costly, whittling the number down to thousands, assuming the Chinese are not fighting on other fronts like India.

Assuming the parents of the dead troops are not in open insurrection, as their only sources of income are dead;

Assuming the other Party cliques that hate Xi have not killed him.


13 posted on 12/06/2021 8:10:15 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: bert

Ground defense is futile. China must be destroyed where it is.

Without holding ground no war can be won.

The PLA troops will be crying and sobbing all the way to the front, knowing they will all be dead shortly and never see their families again.

By the time they get to their jumping off points, they will be so demoralized, they will be even more ineffective then they already are - which goes with their not having fought more than a few skirmishes in the past centuries and never decisively won any of them, let alone winning a war.

China has a lot of neat looking toys, but no experience using them, plus they suck at logistics.


14 posted on 12/06/2021 8:17:13 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: PIF

Actually, that is not true.

Where as the bombing of Europe did not bring Germany to a condition of defeat, bombing caused Japan to surrender. While the Atom bombs are credited with the victory, the fact is that all the Japanese’s cities except Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pretty much gone.

As the emperor went out on his veranda and looked around, all of Tokyo was gone, burned up, obliterated. His palace was in island in a wall to wall ocean of destruction.

Japan will never fight China alone. The USA will be there as well. As we converse, We are building a new base on a large island between Okinawa and Japan. That will be unassailable by the unAmerican Japanese riff raff. all of China will be in easy range of the big stealth bombers.

The world is deserting China and our pacific allies are joining forces to actively destroy any Chinese threat.


15 posted on 12/06/2021 10:52:08 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: bert

Where as the bombing of Europe did not bring Germany to a condition of defeat, bombing caused Japan to surrender.


Disagree. Russian troops did most of the work causing the Germans to surrender.

US 4th Marine Regiment occupied Japan on August 28th. Japanese formally surrendered on Sept 2nd. Japan lacked the trained manpower to carry on. Using civilians to defend the Empire would have been a Pyrrhic victory, ending with the absolute destruction of Japanese culture, and would have made the Chinese demands to exterminate the Japs sound reasonable.


16 posted on 12/06/2021 11:53:57 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: bert

“We are building a new base on a large island between Okinawa and Japan.”

Tell me more...


17 posted on 12/06/2021 12:19:21 PM PST by dakine
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To: PIF

Getting them there will be very costly, whittling the number down to thousands, ...


Who knows ... there might even be a really-bad storm ... a Divine Wind, so to speak.


18 posted on 12/06/2021 3:29:06 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: dakine

Here’s the video with the Japanese announcement of the island acquisition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jJGzeVrvv4


19 posted on 12/07/2021 5:41:39 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: RomanSoldier19

Maybe we should have let the Japs keep China after all.


20 posted on 12/07/2021 5:43:13 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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