In a delicate ballet 7,500m above the open sea, four Japanese F-15s pull up to a US Air Force tanker, the insignia of the rising sun shining from their wings. One by one, they maneuver into range of the tanker's refueling boom, hold their position, then dip their wings and vanish.
American military planners say it's the look of the future -- a deeply interwoven relationship with a credible Japanese ally ready to deploy overseas and share the burden of keeping the peace in a volatile region.
To the US crew, the mock refueling is just another day's work.
"The skill level is the same, the planes are the same," said boom operator Mike Webster. "It's basically just like working with our own people."
The only difference, he says, is the language, but both sides manage with English.
In Washington, it's called "interoperability" and it's a top military priority. With its own forces engaged in Iraq and elsewhere, the US needs to strengthen its alliances and draw on its friends for whatever support it can get. And since the end of World War II, Japan has been Washington's best friend in Asia.
But the idea of a beefed-up Japanese military doesn't resonate well through the region.
As the two-week refueling exercise was being carried out late last month, relations between Japan and neighboring China were plunging to their lowest point in years, largely over Japanese wartime aggression that left millions of Chinese dead, and over Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
There is no consensus in Japan, either.
Negotiations on a broad reworking of the military alliance with Washington are reportedly bogging down because the government is divided over just how far Japan should follow Washington's call.
The bigger question is whether Japan should even be a military power.
The US-led occupation forces disbanded Japan's military after World War II and helped write a constitution that barred Japan from using "the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."
Washington soon realized it needed to build an ally to counter communism in Asia, and Japan passed a law in 1954 that paved the way for establishing its Self-Defense Forces. Though the decision was denounced by many who saw it as unconstitutional, the government argued that the military force is legal because it is strictly defense-oriented.
That argument is becoming hard to sustain.
Japan has more than 240,000 active-duty troops and an annual defense budget bigger than the UK's. Its air force has more than 160 F-15s and its spy satellites keep watch on North Korea.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who advocates a constitutional change to free up the military, has pushed the envelope even further, sending hundreds of soldiers to southern Iraq for humanitarian activities and more to Southeast Asia to provide tsunami relief.
"Japan is America's only reliable partner in Asia, and Washington wants Japan to make a big contribution in its efforts in the region," said Takehiko Yamamoto, professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University.
Yamamoto said Tokyo, for its part, wants to bolster its troops largely because of the perceived threat from China and regional wild card North Korea, which is developing nuclear weapons and has missiles that can deliver them to Japan.
This week the Japanese Defense Agency said its fighter jets scrambled 13 times last year in response to Chinese military aircraft approaching their airspace, up from only twice in 2003. And on Sunday North Korea apparently test-fired another missile into the Sea of Japan. However, Japanese and South Korean officials said it was a small missile unrelated to anything nuclear.
Yamamoto said the political constraints on Japan's military posture have eased.
"Collective security used to be seen as unconstitutional. But it seems the Japanese government believes it need only reinterpret -- not change -- the constitution to justify its policy shifts."
Two areas have long been taboo -- the development of nuclear weapons and the acquisition of aircraft carriers or other means of projecting power overseas.
The nuclear ban, driven by memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remains firm.
But the Defense Agency announced plans in 2001 to buy a 13,000-tonne destroyer with a flight deck for anti-submarine helicopter operations. Opponents called it a mini-aircraft carrier.
The day when Japan refuels US F-15s, meanwhile, may not be far away. In two years, Japan's first tanker, a Boeing 767, will be delivered to a military airfield in the central Japanese city of Nagoya.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS