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> But they haven't committed any military aggression toward any country in more than 65 years. Well, yeah. It's in their constitution. > It is my personal opi
by sdrothrock 12y ago
> But they haven't committed any military aggression toward any country in more than 65 years.
Well, yeah. It's in their constitution.
> It is my personal opinion that there is almost no way that the people of Japan (where I live, though I am American) would support a war against China. Even if China just up and landed an occupying force on Japan's Senkaku islands.
Perhaps not over the Senkaku Islands, but I think that if China were aggressive toward one of the four main islands (or Okinawa), the Japanese people would definitely support war -- even if not in actual name. I was really surprised at the general sentiment toward the proposed amendment in that it was a lot more supportive than I personally would have expected from a heiwa-boke Japan.
Especially against China though, there's already a lot of dark, anti-China sentiment (especially with the recent chicken fiasco) that I feel like could be stirred up into support for a non-War armed conflict/proportional response... though I don't know how the people would act after seeing the results.
Edit: In addition, I feel like war-weary Americans would be similarly ambivalent about entering war against China if China tried to annex, say, Wake Island.
> As with the Philippines, I think the USA is the main deterrent to Chinese aggression.
This is for me personally the number one reason I don't think that China would be willing to escalate against Japan, actually. American bases in Japan can not only provide support, but attacks on them would draw America into the conflict necessarily.
- mikeash 12y agoAmericans are weary of pointless, stupid wars involving people we never heard of in countries we can't find on a map. But touch our territory, and you're going to wish you hadn't. It doesn't matter if nobody knows where Wake Island is or if nobody lives there. It doesn't matter if it's fairly unimportant. It's ours, and Americans are intensely territorial. If China landed troops on Wake Island, I'm pretty sure that the less war-hungry side of Congress, whichever that may be at the time, would be calling for bombing campaigns, carrier task forces, and an immediate counter-invasion. The hawks would need to be bodily restrained from launching ICBMs.
- greedo 12y agoFunny, the Argentines felt that the British wouldn't respond to invading the Falklands. Most wars are a result of one government failing to understand how another government will respond.
- anigbrowl 12y agoAttacks on Japan would draw America into the conflict. We provide their defense by treaty (and vice-versa, for what it's worth - Japan is committed to help the US if it is attacked, although this would typically be in the form of logistics and money since they don't have a lot of military ahrdware or experience these days): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Mutual_Cooperation_and_Security_between_the_United_States_and_Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Mutual_Cooperation_an...