Anniversary: Russo-Japanese War

The formal declarations of war came a few days later, but the Russo-Japanese War started with an attack on 8 February.

Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian Government, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. Russia declared war on Japan eight days later. However, the requirement to declare war before commencing hostilities was not made international law until after the war had ended in October 1907, effective from 26 January 1910. Montenegro also declared war against Japan as a gesture of moral support for Russia out of gratitude for Russian support in Montenegro's struggles against the Ottoman Empire. However, due to logistical reasons and distance, Montenegro's contribution to the war effort was limited to those Montenegrins who served in the Russian armed forces.

It was ended in 1905, with the Treaty of Portsmouth, a rare peace treaty that was signed in the Western Hemisphere for a war not involving nations from that half of the world.

So what games have you played on this war? Sound off in the comments!

By: Brant

Anniversary: Russo-Japanese War

The formal declarations of war came a few days later, but the Russo-Japanese War started with an attack on 8 February.

Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian Government, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. Russia declared war on Japan eight days later. However, the requirement to declare war before commencing hostilities was not made international law until after the war had ended in October 1907, effective from 26 January 1910. Montenegro also declared war against Japan as a gesture of moral support for Russia out of gratitude for Russian support in Montenegro's struggles against the Ottoman Empire. However, due to logistical reasons and distance, Montenegro's contribution to the war effort was limited to those Montenegrins who served in the Russian armed forces.

It was ended in 1905, with the Treaty of Portsmouth, a rare peace treaty that was signed in the Western Hemisphere for a war not involving nations from that half of the world.

What lessons did either side learn from this conflict? Your thoughts in the comments!

By: Brant

Shooting War Coming in the East China Sea?

Are China and Japan going to come to blows over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands? The Economist reports...

CHINA and Japan are sliding towards war. In the waters and skies around disputed islands, China is escalating actions designed to challenge decades of Japanese control. It is accompanying its campaign with increasingly blood-curdling rhetoric. Japan, says the China Daily, is the “real danger and threat to the world”. A military clash, says Global Times, is now “more likely…We need to prepare for the worst.” China appears to be preparing for the first armed confrontation between the two countries in seven decades

China and Japan have well-known differences over history and territory—most pressingly over five islets, out in the East China Sea, which Japan controls and calls the Senkakus but which China lays claim to and calls the Diaoyus. Rational actors with deeply entwined economies are supposed to sort out their differences, or learn to put them safely to one side. At least, that was the assumption with China and Japan.

But this changed in September, after Japan’s then prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, nationalised the three islands Japan did not already own. It was a clumsy attempt to avoid them falling into the hands of Shintaro Ishihara, a right-wing China-baiter who was governor of Tokyo until late last year.

Yet China insisted that the move was an anti-China conspiracy to strengthen Japan’s claim. It set out to blow a hole in Japanese pretensions to sole control of the waters and skies around the islands. Incursions by surveillance vessels came first. Then, in December, a patrol plane buzzed the islands; Japan scrambled fighter planes. This month Japanese and Chinese jets sought to tail each other near the islands’ air space. Japan, newspapers report, is considering ordering warning shots to be fired next time. A Chinese general says that would count as the start of “actual combat”. So long as China vies for control, conflict will be a hair-trigger away.

The thing is, given the history behind their relationship - especially WWII - it won't be hard for China to drum up world sympathy against the Japanese, even if China is blatantly in the wrong. It will be interesting to see how this will play out in the UN, and on world trade markets, as both sides are very heavily tied in around the world. How many Japanese-owned shipping companies are hauling Chinese consumer goods to ports around the world?

By: Brant

PLA Influence Concerns Japan

Japan is seeing the militarization of China's foreign policy as a concern. And if anyone should know what a military-driven foreign policy looks like, it would be the Japanese.

Japan on Tuesday flagged the Chinese army's growing role in shaping the country's foreign policy as a security risk, saying a sense of caution exists across East Asia about Beijing's apparent military expansion in the region.
In its annual defense white paper, Tokyo said some believe that relations between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Communist Party leadership were "getting complex" and said this was a matter of concern.
There is a possibility that the degree of military influence on foreign policy decisions has been changing, the paper said, without elaborating.
"This situation calls for attention as a risk management issue," it added.
The report comes out at a time when China's senior officers, intelligence advisers and maritime agency chiefs have been increasingly outspoken in calling for Beijing to take a tougher line in regional territorial disputes with rival claimants.
In referring to those disputes, which include a long-simmering row with Japan in the East China Sea, Tokyo's views echoed the findings of a 2011 paper which welcomed China's growing role on the world stage while noting its increasingly aggressive moves.

By: Brant

US-JPN-SKOR Naval Exercises Announced

Defense.gov News Release: United States, Republic of Korea and Japanese Naval Exercises Announced

The United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan will conduct a two-day, trilateral naval exercise June 21 - 22 in the waters south of the Korean peninsula.

The exercise will focus on improving interoperability and communications with the ROK Navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, which can facilitate cooperative disaster relief and maritime security activities in the future. The three navies will conduct this exercise beyond the territorial waters of any coastal nation.

The United States will then conduct a routine carrier operation with the ROK Navy in the Yellow Sea immediately after the trilateral exercise June 23 - 25.

The George Washington Carrier Strike Group will make a port call in Busan, South Korea, after completing the two exercises.

Note that there's no mention of either China or the Norks.

By: Brant

Anniversary: The Doolittle Raid

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Doolittle's Raid

The Army pilots at the controls of the B-25s had practiced short takeoffs from the comfortably dry land of a Florida airstrip but had never once tried it at sea. No one else ever had, either. Landing a B-25 on a carrier was impossible. Flying a B-25 off a carrier was, by comparison, merely insane. But the medium-weight bombers were the only aircraft in the American arsenal with a prayer of completing the daredevil mission. If all went according to plan, they would fly five hundred miles to Japan, drop their load, then continue another eleven hundred miles to a safe landing in unoccupied China.

Leading the attack was an unflappable test pilot, Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle; his was the first of the lumbering bombers to catapult down the heaving deck. Over the next hour fifteen others followed. One pilot hung on the verge of a stall for so long as he struggled to get airborne that, Halsey later recalled, "we nearly catalogued his effects." Thirteen of the planes headed for Tokyo, roared in over the rooftops from different directions, and dropped their four bombs apiece. The three others hit Nagoya and Osaka. Ever since the attack on Pearl Harbor four months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been pressing for just such a morale-boosting coup to bolster some of America's wounded pride. The Doolittle raid had been his pet project, and he was exultant with the news. Asked by reporters where the planes had come from, FDR grinned and said, "Shangri-La."

And they did it all with just 16 aircraft.


Image from Wikimedia



By: Brant

Japan Dramatically Increasing Arms Purchases

Foreign Affairs has an excellent article about Japan's big arms purchase.

Last December, Tokyo announced that it would purchase Lockheed-Martin's F-35 Lightning II as its next-generation jet fighter. In doing so, it disappointed BAE Systems, the European maker of the Eurofighter Typhoon, which had hoped to win the $4.7 billion contract itself. For a while, it seemed as though it might. The Lockheed deal had its downsides: Initially, Japanese firms would have played no role in producing the new jets; likewise, they would not have had access to the secret technologies used in the F-35's design. It was not until Lockheed agreed to allow domestic contractors to participate in building the new jets and share some top-secret technologies that Japan decided to make the deal. In retrospect, that move should never have been in much doubt. The contract closely follows Japanese defense policy precedent: acquiring the most advanced American military hardware available under licensing agreements, producing that hardware in Japan to boost the economy, and keeping the U.S.-Japan alliance tight, positing Japan as a buffer between the United States and the region's major powers.

Japan has filled this role for decades. In 1946, during the United States' postwar occupation of Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander for the Allied Powers, insisted that the country's new constitution include a clause barring Japan from maintaining war-making capabilities. In return, Washington would protect Japan from outside attack and maintain a sizeable military presence there to do so. When the Korean War broke out, the number of U.S. troops in Japan dwindled as soldiers were moved from Japan to fight on the Korean peninsula. Realizing that the force it could afford to retain in Japan was not sufficient for maintaining order or fending off a communist infiltration, the United States pressured Japan to relax the ban on maintaining military forces. Under the guidance of the U.S.-dominated Allied General Headquarters, the country created a paramilitary force, the National Police Reserve (which gradually morphed into the Self-Defense Forces, or SDF, Japan's main military organization today). Meanwhile, military production contracts from U.S. firms poured into the country. For example, during the three years of the Korean War, 235 Japanese companies produced $500 million worth of ammunition for the U.S. military.

As Japanese factories built military hardware on license from U.S. defense firms, the country's heavy industrial companies picked up the know-how to create cutting-edge domestic civilian technologies. In the 1950s and 1960s, for instance, the highly reinforced plastics originally designed to build the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter found their way into Mitsubishi's YS-11 and MU-2 turboprop aircraft. And Japanese experience with U.S. jet engine bearing technology -- which allows mechanical parts to work at high speeds -- played an important role in the development of the country's iconic Shinkansen bullet trains. Soon, producing military hardware under license from the United States and then reaping the civilian technological and economic benefits became a cornerstone of Japanese foreign arms procurement policy: When negotiating arms deals with the United States, Tokyo often requested that specific processes -- such as quality testing, metal bending, and the development of cameras, tires, engines, and synthetic materials -- take place in Japan so that Japanese firms could build experience in those lucrative fields. Producing the F-35's fuselage and studying its stealth technology, too, will also give Japanese defense contractors a leg up. Already, Mitsubishi is producing a prototype one-third-scale stealth aircraft, the Mitsubishi ATD-X Shinshin, and the project will surely benefit from familiarity with the inner workings of the F-35.

By: Brant

Anniversary: Russo-Japanese War

The formal declarations of war came a few days later, but the Russo-Japanese War started with an attack on 8 February.

Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian Government, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. Russia declared war on Japan eight days later. However, the requirement to declare war before commencing hostilities was not made international law until after the war had ended in October 1907, effective from 26 January 1910. Montenegro also declared war against Japan as a gesture of moral support for Russia out of gratitude for Russian support in Montenegro's struggles against the Ottoman Empire. However, due to logistical reasons and distance, Montenegro's contribution to the war effort was limited to those Montenegrins who served in the Russian armed forces.

It was ended in 1905, with the Treaty of Portsmouth, a rare peace treaty that was signed in the Western Hemisphere for a war not involving nations from that half of the world.

So what real ramifications did this war actually have? Tell us your thoughts below.

By: Brant

Japan Join JSF Ranks

The Japanese have decided on Lockheeds F-35 fighter as their new aerial toy.

Japan picked Lockheed Martin's F-35 jet as its next mainstay fighter Tuesday, choosing the aircraft over combat-proven but less stealthy rivals, as concern simmers over North Korea and as China introduces its own stealth fighters.
The decision came as Japan and the United States stressed that their security alliance was tight in the face of worry about an unstable North Korea after the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il.
Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa said the decision to buy 42 of the stealth aircraft, valued by analysts at more than $7 billion, would help Japan adjust to a changing security environment after Monday's announcement of the death of the 69-year-old North Korean leader.
"The security environment surrounding future fighter jets is transforming. The F-35 has capabilities that can firmly respond to the changes," Ichikawa told reporters.

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: Third Great War

Wow. Even the Japanese published a NATO-WarPact game, The Third Great War






Master links/images from Boardgamegeek.com; message boards linked to Consimworld. Other links to the actual game pages...


By: Brant

What is in Japan's New Plans for Defense?

So what does Japan's new defense reorganization look like?

The December 2010 adoption of Tokyo's new defense guidelines - the so-called National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) first adopted in 1976 and subsequently updated in 1995 and 2004 - transform Japan's security and defense policies from 'basic' to 'flexible and dynamic', in essence meaning that Japan now reserves the right to upgrade its military capabilities, increasing its defense expenditures beyond one percent of GDP - a self-imposed limit that has served as a guiding principle of Japanese defense policy for decades.
For an allegedly 'pacifist' country equipped with a constitution that does not allow for the maintenance of armed forces, it is remarkable that Japan should now contribute to regional stability by "increasing the activity" of its defense hardware and "clearly demonstrating its advanced capabilities", according to the guidelines.
Although Tokyo will not (at least not yet) equip itself with 'real' offensive military power projection capabilities, the defense guidelines are clearly aimed at equipping Japan's military capabilities to react to crisis scenarios that go beyond the defense of Japanese territory on the Japanese 'mainland.'
In reaction, mainland China's policymakers expressed little concern for the possible implications of the defense guidelines for actual Japanese defense and security policies, instead stressing that Japan's warnings about China's military rise were misguided. The assertion that "China's military development and the lack of transparency are matters of concern" was dismissed as "irresponsible" and "totally groundless" by the state-controlled China Daily. To be sure, China's recent public announcement that it would speed up the development of an aircraft carrier fleet (to be deployed in the East China Sea) confirmed that Japan's concerns might be anything but groundless and irresponsible, at least from the standpoint of Japan's defense planners.
The defense guidelines will be accompanied by a re-structuring of Japan's armed forces, including a very noteworthy upgrade of the country's naval and coast guard capabilities. Until 2012, 21 new patrol ships and seven new reconnaissance jets will be added to the Japan Coast Guard fleet to be dispatched to where the (potential) 'action' is: the East China Sea.
In addition, Japan's navy will increase the number of its AEGIS destroyers from four to six. AEGIS destroyers are equipped with antimissile systems and are at least in theory able to shoot down incoming North Korean Nodong missiles aimed at downtown Tokyo in less than 10 minutes. The number of Japanese submarines will also be increased from 16 to 22, while the number of tanks will be reduced from 600 to 400.

By: Brant

Japan May Strengthen Military Relationship With South Korea

China can't be too happy with the prospect of a possible military alliance between Japan and South Korea.

Responding to recent provocations by North Korea, Japan's defense minister soon will visit Seoul with several proposals aimed at strengthening military ties despite South Korea's lingering bitterness over Japan's colonial past, Japanese news media reported Tuesday.

During the trip next week, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa will propose that the two Asian neighbors sign separate agreements to cooperate in supplying each other's armed forces during peacekeeping and other international operations, and to facilitate sharing of sensitive military information, the reports said. They also said he would propose Japan and South Korea increase military contacts by scheduling regular high-level meetings between defense officials.

[snip...]

According to Tuesday's news reports, one of Kitazawa's proposals would be for an agreement allowing forces to cooperate during international operations like peacekeeping and disaster-relief efforts, sharing food, water and fuel, and support services like transportation and medical care.

The news reports said it was unclear if the cooperation with South Korea would extend to military emergencies, like a larger confrontation on the Korean Peninsula. While some Japanese leaders have spoken of raising their nation's profile, Japan so far has said it would limit its military role during such a contingency to supporting the United States, its longtime protector.

Last month, South Korean observers attended joint U.S.-Japan military exercises for the first time. In an interview last month, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara of Japan said he expected the two nations to slowly increase military ties in response to the North.

By: Shelldrake

Japanese Military To Respond To Growing Chinese Presence

The potential threat of China and, to a lesser extent, North Korea have caused a major shift in Japan's defense strategy.

In what would be a sweeping overhaul of its cold war-era defense strategy, Japan is about to release new military guidelines that would reduce its heavy armored and artillery forces pointed north toward Russia in favor of creating more mobile units that could respond to China’s growing presence near its southernmost islands, Japanese newspapers reported Sunday.

The realignment comes as the United States is making new calls for Japan to increase its military role in eastern Asia in response to recent provocations by North Korea as well as China’s more assertive stance in the region.

The new defense strategy, likely to be released this week, will call for greater integration of Japan’s armed forces with the United States military, the reports said. The reports did not give a source, but the fact that major newspapers carried the same information suggested they were based on a background briefing by government officials.

The new guidelines also call for acquiring new submarines and fighter jets, the reports said, and creating ground units that can be moved quickly by air in order to defend the southern islands, including disputed islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China and Taiwan. These disputed islands are known as the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.

Details of the realignment, which was delayed a year by the change of government in September 2009, have been leaking out since large joint military drills this month between Japan and the United States that included the American aircraft carrier George Washington.

By: Shelldrake

GrogNews Daily Headlines

Today's WikiDrips...
Syria is still selling missiles to Hezbollah, the US is trying to stem the flow of arms from eastern Europe to enemies around the world, and NATO had a "secret" plan to defend the Baltic states (second article here).
And Assange surrendered to police in London.

Joint US-Japanese exercises are designed to send a message to the Norks. Reuters tries to answer what happens next on the Korean peninsula. The Southies are fortifying the islands near the Nork border. China is hitting back over criticism of North Korea.

Very quietly, Pakistan has assumed command of Combined Task Force 151 in the Horn of Africa.

India and France are increasing their defense cooperation.

Are there lessons to be learned from Pakistani anti-Taliban militias?

A US Navy petty officer is in deep doodoo for trying to sell classified military documents to undercover agents.

And US soldiers are going to unsafe extremes to meet military weight rules, which are themselves kind of ridiculously stringent.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines Bonus Edition

ADM Mullen is pressing China over the Norks.

How deep into politics is the Pak military? And if you're just going to abuse it and waste it, can we have our money back?

In the wake of the latest WikiLeak, the US is cracking down on security everywhere. And US sources are getting spooked.

Rep Ike Skelton's farewell address warns of the growing gap between the military and civilian populations in the country.

Belarus is giving up their nuke material.

Now that US-SK exercises are done, US-Japan naval exercises are kicking off.

India has test-fired another Brahmos-3 missile.

Want to know what a taxpayer rip-off Alaskan-native 8A status is for government contracting? Read this article from WaPo.

NATO's been expanding the Afghan war? Really?

Kings of War have an amusing article about NATO 2.0, using a David Pogue column as a comparative base.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

Danger Room takes a quick swim through the latest WikiLeaks data dump as the State Department condemns the release and goes into
goes into full-on damage control. I gotta wonder tho - was an E3 really privy to State Department cables? Really?
Oh yeah, and Israel warned the US that engagement with Iran was pointless. We needed WikiLeaks to tell us that? Maybe they know who offed a nuclear scientist with a car bomb and wounded another.

The Brazilian favela shootout apparently netted a huge drugs haul, and at least one Justin Bieber mural.

A Mexican gang boss has admitted to a whole passel of murders. And isn't it cool that "passel" doesn't set off the spellchecker?

The South Koreans are vowing retaliation against any further attack. Hello? How many further attacks do you need? At least they're starting artillery drills - let's hope it's practicing counter-battery fire - against what Seoul has called an "inhumane crime".

The Japanese are still trying to move the US base off of Okinawa.

And how close have we gotten to capping al Qaeda's #2?

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

The Norks are readying their missiles as the U.S.-South Korea exercises steam ahead and the Chinese are threatening everyone with... talks!.

Maybe their threat of talks is a distraction from their vessels snooping into disputed waters near Japan.

Are the troops really OK with ending DADT?

And a near-redux yesterday's headlines :

WikiLeaks has another upcoming document release.

The FBI picked up a kid in Oregon for wanting to set off a bomb.

And Rio police invaded a favela and claimed success.... a, well, raiding a favela.

By: Brant

Japanese Troops To Deploy To East China Sea Island

Recent strained relations between China and Japan and Japanese concern over China's increased assertiveness have resulted in plans to station Japanese soldiers on Yonaguni Island.

Tokyo will send around 100 soldiers to a remote Japanese island in the East China Sea, a report said Thursday, amid growing anxiety over China's naval activities.

The ground troops will be deployed on Yonaguni island, Japan's westernmost point, to carry out coastal patrols and surveillance of Chinese naval vessels, Jiji news agency quoted defense officials as saying.

Tokyo eventually plans to double the number of troops stationed on Yonaguni, which is roughly 60 miles east of Taiwan, the report said.

Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa Nov. 11 stressed the importance of boosting defense in island areas, including Yonaguni, to a security committee meeting at the House of Representatives, Jiji reported.

The defense ministry has applied for 30 million yen ($365,000) from next year's budget for "preparatory research" on the issue, it said.

The Japanese military regularly sends patrol aircraft to the region but has no permanent monitoring facility on Yonaguni, a remote but populated rocky outcrop.

Increased Chinese naval activity has sparked a defense rethink in which Japan has mulled sending more forces to its scattered southern islands and away from Cold War-era bases in the north near Russia.

In an incident in April this year, a large Chinese flotilla approached a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea and sent out a helicopter that buzzed Japanese navy ships monitoring their movement.

The area is a frequent flashpoint for troubles between Japan and China.

By: Shelldrake

GrogNews Morning Headlines

Who bombs the Swiss? That's what Athens police want to know after the Swiss embassy was attacked.

Anglo-French defence cooperation may expand to include a joint nuclear testing treaty.

As the appeals courts in the US extend DADT's time on life support, others wonder if the experiences of our allies matter in the way gay troops were integrated.

The Norks are still claiming they didn't sink the Cheonan, and they're offering torpedo samples to try to prove it.

Japan's busy these days, too, recalling an envoy to Moscow after President Medvedev visited a disputed island claimed by both nations and getting the US stuck in their tug-of-war with China, which the Chinese are not happy about.

Was there a "test run" back in September for the toner cartridge plot?

By: Brant

Japanese Consider Larger Sub Fleet

Concerned about the recent growth and greater capability of China's navy, Japan is looking to boost the size of its submarine fleet.

Japan may increase the size of its submarine fleet, officials said, as concerns rise that the expansion of the Chinese navy is tipping the regional balance of power.

The Defense Ministry said a bigger submarine fleet is under consideration, with a firm proposal likely to come as early as December. Officials who spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday refused to give further details because the plan has not yet been formally tabled.

According to Japanese media reports, the number of submarines would be increased from 16 to 22 over the next four years, a substantial rise that could generate concern from neighboring China.

Though well outnumbered by the Chinese — who now have about 60 subs — the Japanese navy's submarine fleet is significantly augmented by U.S. subs deployed throughout the region. Japanese subs are generally believed to be better equipped than many of the Chinese vessels and are hard to detect.

Takehiko Yamamoto, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University, said the move by Japan reflects a desire to counterbalance the Chinese navy's growth and to strengthen joint Japan-U.S. operations.

Yamamoto said Japanese military planners are particularly concerned that China is seeking to have a more credible "blue-water navy" that can operate farther away from its coastlines.

"That has created a sense of insecurity," he said.

By: Shelldrake