This is a start at least to these two countries learning to play nice with each other:
Some Civic group members oppose military info-sharing among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo on Friday. (Yonhap)
South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will sign a trilateral information-sharing arrangement on Monday to better handle the evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Friday.
The arrangement is expected to strengthen the three-way security cooperation that has been lackluster due to historical and territorial feuds between Seoul and Tokyo, and Seoul’s push for a deepened strategic partnership with Beijing.
South Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Japan’s Vice Defense Minister Masanori Nishi will sign the arrangement separately in their respective countries on Monday.
Under the deal, South Korea and Japan will not directly share their military information, but they will share it via the U.S. upon their consent, Seoul officials explained. Such an indirect method has been devised apparently in consideration of the public sentiment in the South against any military collaboration with its onetime colonizer.
“If South Korea offers information to the U.S., the U.S. would provide it to Japan upon South Korea’s consent. On the other hand, if Japan offers information to the U.S., the U.S. would give it to the South upon Japan’s consent,” a senior official at the Defense Ministry told reporters, declining to be named.
“The sharing will be limited to information about North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. The country that has produced a particular piece of information will determine to what extent it will share its information.” [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but an example of how this would work is if the Japanese received intelligence of an imminent nuclear test they would give that intelligence to the US to give to South Korea instead of directly. The whole setup seems juvenile, but President Park remembers what happened to President Lee Myung-bak when he tried to pass this deal a few years ago and it caused a public outcry and he had to cancel the deal. It was so bad he had to fly to Dokdo to prove he was not a Japanese traitor. Park is being smarter about this intelligence sharing deal with this indirect approach and noticed when she is having the deal signed; right in the middle of the holidays when few people are paying attention.
Considering how many more US and Japanese F-35s will be located in Japan it makes sense that the deep maintenance facility would be located there. Of course the ROKs have to show their displeasure with this:
South Korea said on Thursday it will not send its F-35 fleet to Japan for heavy airframe maintenance, one of the two Asian hubs chosen by the United States to service the Lockheed Martin Corp stealth fighter.
Instead, it is likely to fly the jets to Australia for maintenance, about eight times further away than Japan and well beyond their operating range. The three nations, all key U.S. allies, are the only countries in the region to have ordered the F-35s.
The F-35 program has been lauded as an example of the United States and its allies working together to bolster inter-operability, but in Asia the maintenance plan is bringing traditional rivalry between Seoul and Tokyo to the fore.
The three-star air force general who runs the F-35 program for the United States, Chris Bogdan, told reporters on Wednesday that Japan would handle heavy maintenance for the jets in the northern Pacific from early 2018, with Australia to handle maintenance in the southern Pacific.
“There will never be a case where our fighter jets will be taken to Japan for maintenance,” said an official at South Korea’s arms procurement agency, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
“South Korea has the right to decide where to conduct maintenance for its F-35 jets, and it will decide whenever the need arises.”
The plan at the moment is for the 40 F-35s to be acquired by South Korea to be serviced in Australia, an Australian defense ministry source told Reuters on condition he wasn’t identified.
South Korea will receive the first of the stealth planes in 2018.
A source familiar with the F-35 program said South Korea could, at a later stage, negotiate with Washington on the possibility of handling the heavy maintenance of its own F-35 jets.
Such a deal would require a significant investment by Seoul, including specialized equipment used to test the jets’ stealth. [Reuters]
You can read more at the link, but when the ROKs decided to pursue the F-35 you would think that this was something that was discussed as part of the contract talks; so this should not be too surprising. I would not be surprised that this is just a big media show for domestic consumption now. 2023 is the earliest that the ROK’s F-35 need servicing so a lot can change by then. So it makes sense that Korean politicians now do not want the headache of being accused of compromising defense of the nation to Japan needlessly and let politicians down the road work something out where these planes are quietly serviced in Japan.
I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in World War II history to take a read of the below posting that translates a Mainichi Shinbun article that shows how ineffective and incompetent the Kamikaze attacks were for the Imperial Japanese military during World War II:
One of the defining symbols of the vicious struggle between the US and Japan in the Pacific War, this word always conjures up a conflicting mix of emotions inside me. The very word “kamikaze” has become a synonym for “suicide attack” in the English language. The way WW2 was taught in school (in America) pretty much left us with the impression that kamikaze attacks were part of the standard strategy of the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy throughout the entire war. However, it was only recently that I was surprised to learn that the first time the Japanese introduced this strategy was on October 25, 1944 during the second Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Mainichi Shinbun here in Japan put together a wonderful collection to commemorate the 70th anniversary of this strategy. It features data that has not only been debated and analyzed from a number of angles, but it also provides statistical evidence that underscores the utter failure of this strategy. The title of the article is “Did the divine wind really blow? ‘Special strikes’ claim lives of 4000,” and it is the second part of a three part series called “Numbers tell a tale—Looking at the Pacific War through data”. The first part was posted in mid-August, and the third and final part is due to be put online in December. The original Japanese version for this special can be accessed here. The slides I refer to numbers “1” to “5” listed at the very bottom of each page. The current slide is the one highlighted in blue.
In this post, I will provide an overview of the information on this site while occasionally inserting my own analysis and translations of select quotes. I hope it helps to paint a clearer picture of a truly flawed strategy that is still not properly understood by both sides. [TheFairJilt.com]
Click the link to read the full article, but some of the interesting facts are that only 11% of attacks were successful compared to much higher percentages for dive bomb attacks. The Kamikaze tactic also caused Japan to lose many skilled pilots and advanced aircraft that led to them having to quickly produce inferior pilots and aircraft to replace them. Very interesting read.
Representative Royce is pretty much just stating reality and hopefully one day the Japanese will accept this reality:
The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said “Dokdo” is the right name to refer to South Korea’s easternmost islets, rejecting Japan’s long-running claims that the East Sea islets are its own.
“It’s another one of those issues where we have to understand history and what abuses occurred because it is relevant to our understanding today,” Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency earlier this week. “The proper name is Dokdo island.”
Japan’s claims to Dokdo have long been a key thorn in relations between Seoul and Tokyo, along with other issues stemming from Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonial rule, such as Japan’s enslavement of Korean women as sex slaves for its troops.
South Korea has rejected Japan’s claims over Dokdo as nonsense because the country regained independence from colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
Seoul has been keeping a small police detachment on Dokdo since 1954.
It is considered unusual for the U.S. House Foreign Affairs committee chief to openly reject Japan’s claims to the islets. The U.S. government has not taken any side on the issue, leaving the matter to Seoul and Tokyo to sort out.
Royce, who has been reelected the committee’s chairman for the incoming Congress, is considered one of the “pro-Korean” U.S. lawmakers. He has led a series of legislation and resolutions on issues related to South and North Korea. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but Representative Royce has also been pushing the Japanese to accept the human rights abuses that happened in regards to the comfort women as well.
I have always found this amazing how this Japanese journalist is tried for reporting in the Japanese media what the Korean media was reporting themselves about President Park:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A trial has begun for a Japanese journalist charged with defaming South Korea’s president by reporting rumors that she was absent for seven hours during a ferry disaster in April because she was with a man.
A spokesman from the Seoul Central District Court said Thursday that Tatsuya Kato of Japan’s Sankei Shimbun was present in court as his lawyers and prosecutors introduced evidence.
The indictment has raised questions about South Korea’s press freedom. Critics accuse South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s conservative government of clamping down on journalists in an attempt to control her image.
Prosecutors indicted Kato in October over his Aug. 3 article about Park’s whereabouts on the day the Sewol ferry sank and killed more than 300 passengers, mostly teenagers on a school trip.
The article repeated rumors in South Korean media and the financial industry about a relationship between Park and a former aide who was said to be married at the time. (Associated Press)
It sounds like that someone in marketing over at IKEA wasn’t doing their job very well by not looking to avoid controversy with hot button issues such as this before their grand opening in Korea:
Seen is IKEA’s decorative world map identifying the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan as the “Sea of Japan,” not the “East Sea.” The company said the map was made based on Google Maps. / Captured from IKEA’s homepage
Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, which will open here for business next month, has already become a focus of controversy because of decorative world maps in its product range that identify the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan as the “Sea of Japan,” not the “East Sea.”
IKEA Korea said Tuesday that the maps, currently available at some of the company’s overseas outlets, won’t be shipped into Korea. The Korean unit of the international furniture retailer said the product was made based on Google Maps.
Korea and Japan have wrangled for decades over what to name the waters between the two countries.
“We are sorry for causing controversy,” IKEA Korea said in a statement. “We are fully aware of the seriousness of this case for the Korean people.”
The company said that the map in question had already been excluded from a list of products to be imported to Korea. But it didn’t suggest any solution such as replacing Sea of Japan with East Sea or including both names on the map. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I hope they scrubbed their website and promotional products to make sure that their is no reference to Takeshima as well.
It is too bad that people in Japan and Korea cannot get past harsh history like these US vets are able to do:
HEIWAJIMA, JAPAN — Bill Sanchez looked out over the canal. “That’s where the geisha girls used to be,” he said, pointing at the opposite bank, now lined with modern apartment buildings. “They used to wave at us.”
Was that a twinkle in his eye or just the reflection of the water?
For most American servicemen held as prisoners during World War II, returning to Japan is a complicated thing. But 96-year-old Sanchez, who spent 42 months doing back-breaking work here, said Thursday that the war was bad for everyone. He’s heartened at the way America’s former enemy has emerged from the ashes.
“I went through all that suffering, and the Japanese went through all those bombings,” he said, standing on the waterway that runs alongside what was once Camp Omori, where he was held prisoner.
Now, the camp site is a venue for boat races along the canal, complete with Jumbotron and betting windows. The neighboring mall features huge signs declaring “Big fun”and “Game panic.”
“I take a bit of pride in all of this. What they have done is unbelievable,” said Sanchez, who was brought to Japan on a “hell ship” in 1942 after U.S. forces surrendered in the Philippines, where he was stationed.
He was wearing a crimson garrison cap with “American ex-prisoners of war” on it.
Sanchez, a retired trader in steel and other commodities from Monterey Park, Calif., is one of seven former POWs visiting Japan on a trip organized by Japan’s foreign ministry “to promote mutual understanding between Japan and the United States through encouraging a reconciliation of minds.” (Washington Post)
