Free Republic

Escalating tension with China, violently illustrated by renewed anti-Japanese protests in Shanghai and other big cities at the weekend, is increasing pressure on Tokyo to expand its military capabilities and back a deepening strategic alliance with the US reaching from east Asia to the Gulf. Japan's pacifist postwar constitution restricts its armed forces to self-defence. About 50,000 US troops in Okinawa and other bases guarantee the country's security in return for a $5bn (£2.6bn) Japanese cash contribution. But defence analysts say the perceived Chinese threat, a more assertive, nationalistic Japanese mindset, and Washington's wish to use Japan as a command...

Japan agrees to realignment of US' 1st Corps STAFF WRITER , WITH AP Thursday, Apr 14, 2005,Page 1 The Japanese government has agreed to allow the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters to move from its current location in Washington State to Camp Zama outside Tokyo, a report in the Japanese-language daily Asahi Shimbun said yesterday. Camp Zama is located in the cities of Zama and Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture. The restructuring of the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters is part of an adjustment to allow for better defense cooperation between the US and Japan in the Far East. Many analysts...

  Last 101st convoy leaves Iraq, I Corps plants flagBy Pfc. Thomas Day and Sgt. Jeremy Heckler Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham, commanderl, Task Force Olympia, and Sgt. Maj. Patrick Pacheco, unfurl the colors of 1st Corps during a ceremony held at the palace headquarters in Mosul Feb. 5.SPC Jesse Artis NAVISTAR, Kuwait (Feb. 10, 2004) – The last 101st Airborne Division convoy rolled across the Iraqi border just before 5 a.m. Kuwaiti time this morning, leaving behind a mission that spanned almost a year. Spc. Misael Santiago of Lawton, Okla., pulling rear convoy security with a .50-caliber machine...