A pro-Taiwan Japanese journalist and a former navy rear admiral said yesterday that they would endorse Taiwan as an independent country.
The pair told a forum in Taipei that Japan would support Taiwan if there is a cross-strait war, although it would be impossible for Tokyo to despatch troops to help defend Taiwan.
"I definitely support the idea of Taiwan independence and I believe that many Japanese people feel the same," said Kazuhiko Inoue, senior producer of Japan's Sky Perfect TV.
He made his remarks during the "International Symposium on Pre-sent and Perspective of Asian Security," held by the Taiwan National Security Institute at the Grand Hotel yesterday.
Inoue is a military affairs journalist who has studied the relations between China, Taiwan, Japan and the US for more than 10 years.
"If peace is not maintained in the [Taiwan] Strait, the Japanese will not be able to enjoy the prosperous economic growth that they are enjoying today," he said. "Japan and Taiwan are on the same boat."
"Taiwan's ability to maintain the peace in the Strait fits Japan's needs indeed," said retired admiral Hideaki Kaneda, another speaker at the forum.
Nearly 200 participants, most of them retirement age, attended the six-hour-long seminar.
Both Kaneda and Inoue believe that China will not launch a war against Taiwan.
Both focused on analyzing the regional military deployment of China, Taiwan, Japan and the US. However, the audience appeared more interested in knowing if the Japanese would support Taiwan as an independent country and if Japan would help Taiwan in case of a cross-strait war.
"Currently it is quite impossible for Japan to assign its military troops to help Taiwan if there is a war. But we would definitely mentally support Taiwan anyway," Inoue said.
Asked whether Japan would support Taiwan if Taipei restarted its nuclear weapons program, Inoue became more cautious.
"The Japanese are quite sensitive to certain words, such as war and atomic bombs," he said.
"We hate war. I cannot comment on behalf of my government, but I am quite sure that we will not support any development of nuclear weapons," he said.
Inoue and Kaneda tried to persuade the audience that it was not necessary to fear China's military even though it has large numbers of aircraft, ships, weapons and personnel.
"The Chinese are still using lots of Russian weapons," Inoue said. "Most Russian factories are suffering money problems so the Chinese military is having a hard time trying to maintain their weapons. That is the most serious problem."
According to him, the Chinese government's "one child" policy has created a serious problem for the military because no parents want to sacrifice a child for a war, especially when they have only one and especially when that child is male.
"When there is a war, most parents will try everything they can to help their only sons avoid potential deaths on the battle field. For those soldiers, they will do whatever it takes to avoid battles because they know that they are their parents' hopes," Inoue said. "Under these circumstances, do you think they will try their best, even sacrifice themselves, for their country if necessary?"
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