Japan, U.S. draft operation plan for Taiwan contingency

Such a deployment, however, would make the islands the target of attack by China's military, putting the lives of residents there at risk.

Deployment on those islands other than the Diaoyu Islands do not make them Chinese targets; the US launching military intervention from Nansei islands at the outbreak of war and this makes Japan legally an enemy combatant of China and make Tokyo the target of Chinese attacks.

So if the US launches military intervention from Nansei islands at the onset of Taiwan War, then thousands of Chinese ballistic missiles fall on Tokyo.

So what will Japan do, allow the US to set up bases on Nansei islands but not allow the US to launch military interventions to rescue Taiwan?

This has been a question Japan has faced since the Vietnam conflict.

Pity Japan’s oil supplies were not cut off during the Gulf war, a suitable bucket of cold water to wake the Japanese public up to the realities of the world they live in. As it is their mentality is of children still in the nursery, safe and protected by the adults and with no conception of the harsh world outside.

And there you have it. Japan will provide the logistical support for the US. And it has already been established under Japanese law that the JSDF can engage the enemy if the US forces come under attack. Australia has already announced they will support the US if Taiwan is attacked.

Let's all hope China will dump their fixation on taking Taiwan and leave the region in peace.

The development will likely draw a backlash from China,

typical reaction. tell them to shove it, and "stop meddling in internal affairs of other countries"

If China attacks Taiwan, no doubt China and the US including allies are going to be at war, but CCP really does not want direct war with the US (according to high ranking member of CCP). The reason is enormous damages for economy. So Taiwan seems to remain ever same in high tension. As long as Taiwan does not become officially independent, China would not invade Taiwan, but continue to provoke it constantly.

Shouldn’t this plan be top secret?

Maybe it is better to let China know a little bit about US and Japan's mutual intentions so they do not make a tragic mistake and attack Taiwan?

Abe/Kishi firmly in charge of Japan's military policy.

So a Taiwan 'contingency' will lead to the handover of even more Japanese territory to the US military, that will never be handed back. Oh, and Japan will pay all the costs of this US deployment of course.

So if the US launches military intervention from Nansei islands at the onset of Taiwan War, then thousands of Chinese ballistic missiles fall on Tokyo.

And then thousands of US missiles fall on Beijing. Does China really want to escalate hostilities to all out war with the US and it's allies? If and when it does that, then all major cities of all combatants including China will be flattened.

The title of the article is:Japan, U.S. draft operation plan for Taiwan contingency.

The title should be :Japan, South Korea and U.S. draft operation plan for Taiwan contingency! But it's not!!

What your seeing is Japan talking the talk and walking the walk, while S. Korea gets a big pass! China and Russia not their problem! They want good relations with them instead. Focus on trade and the Korea peninsula.

S. Korea refuses to counter China's aggressive moves by joining Quad Alliance or to Defend Democratic Taiwan or the shipping lanes which S.Korea uses as well.

A Taiwan emergency is a Japan emergency, while S. Korea is focus on Hating Japan instead! If only the issue was Japan, then S.korea could take a stance and stand strong! never give in to Japan!..... But willing to bend 180 degrees for CCP China. Priceless from S.Korea as always!

Message for Taiwan : Japan and the U.S. have your back if the commies try anything.

Not only would Japan and the U.S. fiercely defend Taiwan, they would crush any Chinese that attempted to invade. Not to mnention QUAD and AUKUS forces who would be there in a heartbeat protecting Taiwan.

The Obama pivot to Asia. A stratagem unleased by the Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Continues under Biden.

That the LDP, not to be confused with the citizens of Japan, determines deploying troops as logistical support for the USA military, upon Japanese sovereign territory is an insane policy determines a divorce from reality - such is neither realpolitik or a viable geopolitical stance. It reflects an offensive, not defensive strategy, simply named what it is: An attack base. It is complete madness.

Let alone the surrender of Japanese territory to the US military.

One might examine the less than successful military actions of the past thirty years by the USA and the carnage & destruction, alongside the costs.

War with China. With cheerleading by foreign residents in Japan. Based on a ludicrous scenario that China is going to attack Taiwan, which is American propaganda. Take a hard look where most of your household goods and electronic devises are assembled & manufactures.

Ignorant statements about raining down missiles. What manner of delusion can possibly frame such a statement? As if war is a game with winners and losers.

The title should be :Japan, South Korea and U.S. draft operation plan for Taiwan contingency! But it's not!!

Because Japan and South Korea are often at odds and your personal ambition to put South Korea down in every article, especially articles that make no mention of them at all are legendary.

South Korea is in a very different and very much more dangerous position than Japan. Land border with hostile North Korea and on the same land mass as China. Japan has a lot of water between it and China and North Korea.

Your anti South Korea position could not be more clear. You try hard to make them an enemy but they like Japan are allied with the US and that will not alter.

If South Korea and the US make plans to deal with a contingency of North Korea attacking I hope you fully expect Japan to include itself in those plans, and condemn it if it does not.

China will never go to war with any nation, they will consume Taiwan from within.

China will never go to war with any nation, they will consume Taiwan from within.

If Taiwan declared independence there would be a war the same day regardless of the military balance at the time. For the CCP, allowing Taiwan to become independent without a fight to the death would leave the CCP utterly discredited and render them powerless, a paper tiger revealed. They would be swept aside by an angry Chinese populace.

Having said that my strong suspicion is, if Taiwan, the US, Japan, Australia and the other western allies play their cards conservatively, maintaining the political and diplomatic status quo while keeping enough military capability in the region for the Chinese to never get the idea they could succeed in conquering Taiwan by force, then in the long term I expect the current form of government in Taiwan and their autonomy to survive the inevitable collapse of the CCP. At that point we may find the mainland looking to Taiwan for help establishing a true elected representative government for all of China that honors individual rights. With an elected government in Beijing the mainland and Taiwan can have an adult discussion about their future, either separately or as a single nation.

Let alone the surrender of Japanese territory to the US military.

That is a gross distortion of fact. Japan would surrender no territory to the US. US forces would operate from established Japanese SDF bases very much at the invitation of Japan. But now the Chinese would have to worry that if they tried to operate their navy around Taiwan they would be subject to attack by land based Marine Corps anti-ship missiles such as JSM or even the MST version of Tomahawk.

The US Marines have been working on a new method of operating, landing small forces equipped with missiles and rockets from smaller non-traditional landing ships on small islands in the South China Sea and, in coordination with naval forces, combine to create a crossfire or hammer and anvil the Chinese warships can't escape. Once the action is over the Marines evacuate the island to their smaller landing ships and disappear to land somewhere else in coordination with the Navy. The idea is for such Marine forces and their anti-ship missiles to pop up in places the Chinese don't expect, sink some Chinese ships in coordination with the Navy, and quickly leave, cavalry tactics applied to naval warfare. The Marines have already handed all of their armor over to the Army and many of their big field guns too, all to be replaced with long range rockets (there is a successor to HIMARS coming) and anti-ship missiles. The days of the Marines looking like a second land army are going away fast. This agreement with Japan is part of this new tactical employment concept.

One might examine the less than successful military actions of the past thirty years by the USA and the carnage & destruction, alongside the costs.

To be blunt, the US military did a great job of taking enemy territory. In Desert Storm if you recall most of the so-called experts expected a drawn out blood bath for US and Coalition forces. The Iraqi Army was huge, organized and equipped much like the Soviet Army before the USSR collapsed, or the PLA of that time. Many expected the US to be defeated. Even US war planners were so worried one of the US Navy's huge hospital ships was sent to the Persian Gulf to handle the expected tidal wave of casualties. Instead US, UK and French armor rolled over the Iraqis in 100 hours with scarcely any casualties and were practically at the gates of Baghdad when George Bush Sr. called it a day.

The second time around the US and UK forces needed two weeks to take all off Iraq. Both invasions had minimal losses for allied forces, though the Iraqi military was decimated both times with huge losses. US forces took control of Afghanistan rapidly and cleared out Tora Bora in two weeks, something the mighty Soviet Army could never accomplish in a decade of fighting there. I think the main mistake the US made in the invasion of Afghanistan was trusting some very untrustworthy tribal warlords who probably should have been arrested and their militias disarmed. The US should have set the condition that there are only two armed forces allowed in Afghanistan, the Afghan National Army and NATO forces. Everyone else surrenders their weapons. The US never had the courage to do this and paid for it.

Where the US lost both wars wasn't the actual war, but the subsequent occupation and rebuilding. US diplomats and senior DoD staff made one bad decision after another with the reconstruction and creating democratic institutions. Choosing Hamid Karzai to lead Afghanistan was a horrible mistake. Not disarming the militias was a mistake. The US and its allies did a terrible job of training the Afghan National Army relying too much on US contractors who were only there for the money. I could go on but the actual military operations to take these nations were executed superbly and enemy forces easily defeated. It was the aftermath the US made a hash of.

It is good to see that Japan and the US are taking a position to defend Taiwan, but I think they are looking at the wrong scenario. Rather than a sudden invasion, we can expect the CCP to gradually increase pressure on Taiwan, by restricting air and sea access and by continually violating Taiwans territory (as they do already). Is the US with its short attention span ready to constantly respond to this slow-boiling aggression? I think not.

 by continually violating Taiwans territory (as they do already).

Sigh. An ADIZ is not territorial airspace. An ADIZ can extend 50-100 nm from shore. It is a means to identify aircraft close to their territory and give time to respond to those aircraft who do not have a satisfactory reason to be in the ADIZ or who do not respond to radio calls to identify themselves and state their intentions. Most aircraft entering an ADIZ are commercial aircraft on a filed flight plan following a published airway according to their flight plan so there are no concerns about them being in the ADIZ. However any nation's aircraft can fly through any ADIZ all they want including military aircraft. It is international airspace open for anyone to use. PLAAF aircraft enter Taiwan's ADIZ to test their response times but have not so far entered Taiwan's territorial airspace.