Japan and US have secret invasion plans for disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands
Japan and the United States drew up in 2012 a secret four-phase plan to wrest the disputed Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands, away from an invader in the event that the archipelago was the target of a land-grab.
Sources within the Defence Ministry in Tokyo told the Asahi newspaper that the joint Japan-US operation would involve coordinated artillery and air attacks, with sources telling the South China Morning Post that drawing up such a plan was “a sensible precaution”.
The operation was initially drawn up shortly after the Japanese government purchased the majority of the islands from the Japanese family that owned them in September 2012. That transaction further raised tensions between Tokyo and Beijing after China declared that the uninhabited islands were its sovereign territory.
It is very clear that China is attempting to weaken Japan’s control over the territory, which makes those islands presently Tokyo’s most serious security concern
Within days, two Chinese vessels entered Japanese territorial waters around the islands. In Beijing, the State Oceanic Administration announced that the ships had patrolled waters around the islands to demonstrate: “China’s jurisdiction over the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets and to ensure the country’s maritime interests.”
Beijing has kept up a steady stream of ships approaching the islands in the intervening years, although the two sides have so far managed to avoid a serious clash.
In a meeting in Tokyo the same month, Japan and the US declared that any emergency situation in waters surrounding the islands would come under the Japan-US Security Treaty and that Washington would assist its ally.
With that agreed, senior military strategists from the two sides drew up a plan to deal with any unwanted incursion, although the plans are purposely vague on the location of the islands and the belligerent force. At no point does it mention the Diaoyu Islands.
An official at the National Institute of Defence Studies said the plan is a sensible precaution.
“It is very clear that China is attempting to weaken Japan’s control over the territory, which makes those islands presently Tokyo’s most serious security concern,” the source told the Post.
“But it also underlines the accelerating security relationship between Japan and the US and this sort of cooperation is both understandable and logical for both sides.”
The Japan-US plan begins with the two countries stepping up patrols by aircraft and naval assets to frustrate efforts by hostile forces from reaching the islands.
If a small number of armed infiltrators manage to make it ashore, possibly masquerading as fishermen, the response would be to blockade the islands to prevent additional troops, equipment or supplies from making it ashore.
The US and Japan would then use artillery and air raids to attack the occupiers until their ability to resist had been weakened. The final phase would be a landing by US and Japanese troops to retake the islands.
