U.S. erecting missile shield in Japan

THE UNITED STATES hasn’t forgotten about its treaty commitment to defending Japan, as this article in the International Herald Tribune makes clear.

In a multibillion-dollar experiment, Japan and the United States are erecting the world’s most complex ballistic missile defense shield, a project that is changing the security balance in Asia and has deep implications for Washington’s efforts to pursue a similar strategy in Europe, where the idea has been stalled by the lack of willing partners.

The name of the system is the Joint Tactical Ground Station, or JTAGS, which you can read all about here.

This is not the Patriot system itself, but rather a detection, tracking, and notification system to be used for the missiles. There is already a Patriot system at Kadena in Okinawa, and both the Japanese and American navies use sea-based systems.

The Americans hope this will kill two birds with one stone (so to speak) because further developments in North Korean missile technology might threaten the United States itself.

North Korea has over the past several years made major strides in its development of both nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to the shores of other countries. In October 2006, it conducted its first nuclear test – a step that Iran has not taken – and more than a decade ago shot a multistage ballistic missile over Japan’s main island and well into the Pacific, almost reaching Alaska.

The article also notes there are 50,000 American troops in Japan.

The JTAGS has been set up at the Misawa Air Base at the northern end of the main Japanese island in Aomori. The Japanese military has used the site since the Meiji period, when it was an Imperial Army cavalry training center. It became an air base in 1938.

And to give credit to journalists where credit is due: the first edition of this article used the phrase “balance of power”, but the IHT later amended it to “security balance” in the part quoted above.

The first expression was not appropriate because Japan does not “project power” in the military sense. Their military forces are for self defense only. Indeed, the current interpretation of the Japanese Constitution is that the country would be prohibited from taking preemptive action against North Korea even if the North Koreans were gassing up a warhead-topped missile on the launch pad.

If these systems function properly, that point would no longer be at issue.

Featurettes:

• Misawa was the starting point for the world’s first non-stop trans-Pacific flight. Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon took off from Misawa on the “Miss Veedol” in 1931 and landed 41 hours later in Wenatchee, Washington.
• Misawa is the only combined joint service military base in the western Pacific, as it is used by the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Japan Air Self Defense Force.
• Misawa also has scheduled civilian flights operated by Japan Airlines to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Osaka’s Itami Airport, which makes it one of the few joint civilian-military airports in the American defense system.

Now I’m going to have the phrases “Miss Veedol” and “Wenatchee Washington” bouncing around my head for the next few hours!