At Japan’s Naha airbase in Okinawa, the roar of F-15 fighters dwarfs the sound of the commercial jets they share the runway with.
Three planes take off one after the other to begin the day’s training with combat simulations, air interceptions, response to attacks or emergency missions to cut off suspicious Chinese aircraft.
These routine maneuvers have taken on a new sense of urgency, says Lt. Col. Masatoshi Tanaka.
“We are very nervous,” he says. “We have dealt with airspace violations of Japanese territory on a daily basis. Chinese activities have expanded in number and level. They involve drones, bombers and reconnaissance planes. There are many active aircraft carriers in this area.”
At the center of the conflict
Naha is in the Okinawa archipelago, located on the front line of any potential conflict between China and Taiwan. This self-contained island, which Beijing claims and has vowed to seize by force if necessary, has become one of the world’s biggest flashpoints, especially with US-China relations deteriorating.
With Beijing becoming more belligerent, Taiwan’s security has become a growing concern for Japan, host of the G7 summit in Hiroshima this weekend. And, as China is expected to dominate the summit’s agenda, the role of the Japanese state as a key player in building regional stability has been revalued.
The war in Ukraine and an increasingly volatile Indo-Pacific have placed Japan in a “crucial position in the alignment of powers,” explained Yoko Iwama, a professor of international relations at the National Graduate Institute of Political Studies.
“We are the backbone of the network of alliances and partnerships that the US has in the region, and I think the Americans are aware of that,” he said.
The rearmament of Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has taken steps to underscore that. Japan normalized its diplomatic relations with South Korea in March in what has been dubbed a “new chapter.”
That same month Kishida met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and later made a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he pledged to provide $30 million in non-lethal military aid.
Under his command, Japan has announced his largest rearmament since World War II, pledging to double military spending by 2027, which would give it the third largest defense budget in the world. This illustrates the urgent need for Tokyo to show that it can defend itself and also help its closest ally, the US.
Any defense scenario would involve the US, and Okinawa hosts the largest concentration of US troops in Japan, which must also show that it can rise to the challenge. The hope is that this will be enough to deter Beijing and avoid a conflict in the region.
military tensions
Japan is close enough to be peppered with a conflict it doesn’t want, but could be drawn into.
In April, when the Chinese military rehearsed an encirclement of Taiwan during three days of military exercises, the Japanese Defense Ministry detected a Chinese aircraft carrier some 230 km south of Miyako Island, also part of the Okinawa archipelago.
And when China vented its fury with missile tests after former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year, at least five of the missiles landed within 100 kilometers of the Japanese island. western Yonaguni.
“Geographically speaking, we are very close to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, we have a sense of crisiswarned Yoshitaka Nakayama, the mayor of Ishigaki. The island is about an hour’s flight from Naha Air Base and is a picturesque haven known for fishing and agriculture. Its white sands and crystal clear waters have long attracted tourists and scuba divers.
Ishigaki is also now home to the new military base for the Japan Self Defense Forces. While farmers cultivate the fields that surround it, soldiers guard the entrance and bulldozers modify the land for its construction.
Nakayama argues that they need to protect themselves: “Lyou bwows Chinese patrol very close. The missile launcher equipment we have is to defend ourselves. It is to protect us in case there are planes or ships that want to attack us. We are not looking for war.”
Some 600 troops moved here earlier this year, including squads capable of launching anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles in the East China Sea and beyond.
Ukraine as a warning
Ishigaki and the archipelago are very close to two critical points: the first, the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, controlled by Japan but claimed by China under the name of Diaoyu; and the second, Taiwan, which is 200 km away.
Furthermore, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has raised fears of a possible Chinese attack. As the war progresses in Eastern Europe, parallel scenarios have been raised on this side of the world.
According to Professor Iwama, there are some similarities.
“The type of leader: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. But also the claim of that a territory what is ruleeither by another belongs to you”, he claimed. “People see that and are afraid that it could happen here.”
He adds that watching large parts of Ukraine being bombed brings back memories of World War II.
The fear of the local population
But those memories have also infuriated people in Ishigaki, who fear that their home could be embroiled in conflict again. You have to remember that Okinawa was the epicenter of a historic battle between the US and Japanese armies.
Now, nearly eight decades later, a military base has brought those fears back, dividing a once tight-knit community.
When Setsuko Yamazato, 85, who lost four family members in World War II, heard that a military base was being built in Ishigaki, she gathered a “group of grandmothers” to take a stand against the base.
“The first thing that came to mind was ‘not again,’” he says.
Every week, the group gathers to protest and chant slogans in front of the baseholding the cane with one hand and a banner with the other that reads: “Give our children a future in peace.”
“The Self Defense Forces are coming to the island. They are building a missile base here,” she claims. “Our island is protected by the God of Miroku, not by the military.”
The old woman, who knew the war firsthand as a child, hopes she will not have to suffer another one in her old age.
He assures that he does not want, in any way, that Ishigaki “becomes a battlefield.”
“We have been nourished by the nature and culture of this island. I don’t want it to be destroyed or stolen from us by the war, ”she says.
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