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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Japan's Navy Denies Practice Invasion |
| 2006-12-31 |
| TOKYO (AP) - Japan's navy on Saturday denied a report that Japan and the United States held a drill simulating a Chinese invasion of disputed islands during recent joint naval exercises. The U.S. and Japan sent a flotilla of warships - including the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its battle group - off Japan's southern coast for a week of war games in mid-November called Annualex 18G, their largest joint naval exercise of the year. One of the drills addressed a hypothetical Chinese military invasion of a group of uninhabited islands called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese that both Tokyo and Beijing claim, Kyodo News agency said, citing unidentified Japanese and U.S. officials. The drill was carried out using colors rather than names to designate the countries involved to avoid giving the impression that a specific country was being viewed as the enemy, Kyodo reported. China was designated as "orange", Japan as "blue" and the U.S. as "green," it said. Maritime Self Defense Forces spokesman Hiromitsu Hanada denied the report, saying the Annualex exercises were not directed at defending against any specific country or threat. Japan claimed the islands in 1895 when it colonized Taiwan, but the United States controlled them after World War II and returned them to Japan in 1972. Taiwan also claims the islands as its territory. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 proceed to to obtain the big boomers ? Oh, never mind. Got 'cha. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-12-31 15:38 |
| #1 This is interesting. Shows how importantly Japanese regard this territory. These seemingly small things to us...kidnapping Japanese citizens, encroachment of Japanese territory, drilling for oil in areas the Japanese claim to control,..are the most likely initiators of conflict in the region. This is why the Japanese will amend their constitution and why they will proceed to to obtain the big boomers. The WWII generation who opposed these acts is disappearing as rapidly in Japan as our WWII heroes are here. |
| Posted by: SpecOp35 2006-12-31 13:44 |