Alliance of Subordination Japan-US alliance and SDF -- Part VII

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Alliance of Subordination
Japan-US alliance and SDF -- Part VII

GSDF turning into Marine Corps

“Above the din of throttling engines of Marine amphibious assault vehicles and Navy air-cushioned landing craft, an unfamiliar voice echoed across the smoky well deck ? speaking Japanese. Across the ship’s announcement system, a woman read a series of serial numbers marking the next group of Japanese soldiers and vehicles to organize for the next wave in a Southern California beach assault training exercise, held off Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Feb. 16.”

First strike force

The Marine Corps Times on February 21 reported on the training exercise the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force participated in at Camp Pendleton in California.

U.S. Marines also boarded the state-of-the-art naval transport dock ship New Orleans to take part in the training exercise. The Marine Corps is known as the strike force used to make the first landings conflict zones and build beachheads. Japan-U.S. joint military training has now reached a stage in which the GSDF learns the tactics in Marines’ invasion operations.

Japan and the U.S. held their first joint military training in 1955. It was minesweeping training exercise involving the Japanese GSDF and the U.S. Navy. For a long time since then, bilateral training had been conducted between the GSDF and the Navy for minesweeping and antisubmarine operations a few times a year.

Since a framework for full-fledged bilateral military operations was proposed in the 1978 Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation Guidelines, joint training between the SDF and the U.S. forces rapidly expanded: The Air SDF had its first official joint training with the U.S. Air Force in 1978, the GSDF and the U.S. Marines jointly held training for the first time in 1981, and in 1986, joint training involving all wings of the SDF (Ground, Maritime, Air) and the U.S. Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps) took place for the first time.

Joint training for overseas operations

With the establishment of the 1997 Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation Guidelines and the 1999 Law on Situations in Areas Surrounding Japan, a structure was built for Japan to automatically participate in U.S. military interventions in the Asia-Pacific region. Furthermore, through the SDF’s deployment to the war on Afghanistan (2001~) and the war on Iraq (2003~) in support of the U.S. forces, the Japan-U.S. alliance has been expanded on a global scale with joint military training increasing in both quality and quantity.

In 2002, the SDF for the first time participated in the U.S. forces’ urban combat training program in Hawaii. The GSDF in 2005 learned U.S. military methods of combat in Iraq at Fort Lewis Army Base in Washington.

The earlier-mentioned training in California began in 2006 in accordance with the National Defense Program Outline approved by the cabinet in 2004, which included the overseas operations as one of the SDF’s major tasks.

Bilateral military training exercises took place 51 times in 2009. The government plans to yet again revise the National Defense Program Outline at the end of this year.

(To be continued)