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U.S. military may let SDF share ammunition depots in Okinawa

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Only took them 50 years to be willing to share.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Okinawa Gov Denny Tamaki is opposed to such defense facility sharing, saying it would add to local residents' anxiety. Okinawa residents have long complained of the concentration of U.S. military facilities in their island prefecture.

Once again, Denny living in lala-land! Whether it be the US or JSDF, the bases, in some shape or form, are going to be here in Okinawa.

Leastwise until world peace becomes a reality.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

More ammo under the same roof means a bigger bang if they are hit and no alternative source but back on the mainland. Better to build their own facility and simply ensure either can top up at either facility.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@ Peter

The JSDF is building other bases just not finished yet.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Fine, so let the local residents, if they are so anxious about sharing, live with the fact that the US WON'T share it with the SDF instead. Oh, but then they would be anxious about the lack of sharing. In short, they are anxious for the sake of being anxious, and if they got their dream and the US left, when China came knocking they'd be anxious and demand the US help. They'd also be anxious about their futures since businesses would all shut down around former base areas... you know... where the businesses and residents built around to make a living, and they'd be anxious about still getting handouts despite not even doing the work of hosting the bases.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

They didn’t share before?

It’s probably less confusing to separate the two, especially if they’re using different weapons & munitions. However, if they’re fighting together on the same battlefields in the future, the more similarities between weapons and ammunition the better.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I think what it means is that the JASDF and JMSDF are going to discreetly train to use weapons Japan does not currently procure due to regional sensitivities, but if a no kidding shooting war starts Japanese forces will load and fire the same long range missiles and other offensive ordnance US forces use from US stocks.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

A share of something they paid for , and sharing something that isn’t used because there aren’t even shootings? That’s quite generous…lol I also consider sharing with you all the big profits of share stocks I don’t even possess or could ever buy. But of course I am really willing to share it with you. lol

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Okinawa Gov Denny Tamaki is opposed to such defense facility sharing, saying it would add to local residents' anxiety

The idea makes perfect sense on multiple levels; reduces the need for more land by the JSDF, further integrates US/JPN interoperabilty amd facilitates collective defense. Seems like opposing everything and anything no matter how much sense it makes (like moving an Air Station out of the middle of a crowded city), is the name of the game.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Gonna be a nightmare for the Ammo Admin guys.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Is it surprising for JSDF to share ammunition depots with USFJ Okinawa? Isn't JSDF a subsidiary or contingent of USF on a par with USFJ after all? In a different vein, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested that Japan share use of nuclear weapons with the U.S. Are storage facilities for nuclear weapons still there at Kadena Ammunition Storage Area, intact?

The U.S. may turn many of hitherto U.S. exclusive-use bases in Japan, particularly in Okinawa, to joint-use facilities with JSDF. By so doing, the U.S. can claim they have reduced the number of U.S. bases in Okinawa and that the burden on local residents has been reduced significantly. 

The integration of Japan's Self Defense Forces with U.S. Forces will accelerate by leaps and bounds in the future without any doubt.

It is a tragedy that Okinawa should be trampled like that constantly.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Gonna be a nightmare for the Ammo Admin guys.

Nah. Those bunkers are for your stuff, these bunkers are for our stuff. Or, you have that side of the warehouse, we have this side. You track your stuff in your inventory system, we track our stuff in our inventory system. Simple.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, I would have thought that putting Japanese ammunition under US control (to some extent) would have met with more resistance from Japan,

The Japanese ordnance is still under Japanese control. The US and Japanese will share real estate and probably some warehouses. No different than having two different branches of the service share a facility. We do it all the time.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Recently, SDF missile contingents were deployed to Yonaguni, Ishigaki, Miyako and other islands in the archipelago. Judging from the case of Miyako, all these missile bases must have ammunition depots within the bases or in their vicinities.

So, it's quite strange that the Japanese government has asked the U.S. to allow SDF to share ammunition depots with U.S. forces, to which the U.S. seems to have consented.

Former PM Shinzo Abe's casual suggestion that Japan share use of atomic weapons with the U.S. may tell something very significant ㏌ this context, since Kadena Ammunition Storage Area is assumed to still have nuclear weapons storage facilities that have remained intact and reusable since Okinawa's return to Japan in 1972 for the day when the necessity of their use occurs.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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