13,000 protest USS George Washington

So you don’t feel that neither China nor NK pose any sort of threat whatsoever? The only thing that is keeping China from simply storming across the Taiwan Strait is the US presence in the region.

I think you mistake real life for some propaganda line. There are serious security issues in East Asia and while the US presence there might not make everything perfect it does, at the very least, maintain a status quo that would not allow for attacks on Taiwan or Japan.

Besides, who is to say that North Korea wouldn’t fire missles as soon as the threat of an American retaliation left? Saying there would be no increase in the likelihood of an attack on Japan (or Taiwan) if the United States left doesn’t seem the result of a particularly nuanced view of East Asian relations. Power vaccums become filled fast after they are emptied.

Did you not read the article? It says a lot.

What I saw were nuclear safety issues and irresponsibility leading to on-board fires from not one party, but TWO!

“The fire was blamed on crew members smoking near improperly stored flammable materials.”

Crew members smoking near flammable materials; not just any flammable materials, improperly stored flammable materials. Wonderful standards!

The general response from Armed Forces personnel is typically something like, “There are more dangerous things in the country itself,” or, “They’d be in a lot more trouble without us there.”

Example: “Percentage wise, more Japanese commit crimes than U.S. Armed Forces Personnel.” What this attempts to smooth over is that the overall crime rate would be much less without the personnel there in the first place. There is a lot more weight to crimes or accidents perpetrated by non-citizens, because they are guests in the country. Although this is not an ideal way of thinking, it’s unfortunately natural, and I think it applies to every country in the world.

I don’t mind the U.S. Navy being in Japan, but I think they need to keep things in line. Unfortunately for both sides, stationed officers don’t necessarily want to be in Japan, and so they feel no duty to the country. First and foremost, their loyalties are invested in the U.S. Any opposition from Japanese citizens and personnel dismiss them as “ungrateful”.

That’s right. Right-wingers like you should all stick together.

“You’re embarrassing.”

So who’s making ad hominems now, hypocrite? Embarrassing? I don’t need to hear that from someone who probably wants the US to make the Philippines its 51st state. Why don’t you just toddle back to your federalist pals?

quote

“You know, I really don’t think that North Korea or China are going to attack Japan (or Taiwan, for that matter) the moment the US leaves…”

/quote

Of course they won’t. First they’ll have to wait for a pretense for attack, drum up the propaganda machine at home (those accursed Japanese made us suffer way way back in WWII!), and then attack. Or something like that. If it’s Taiwan, China will attack if Taiwan formally declares independence. The Chinese themselves said that.

Yeah Japan isn’t totally defenseless. But having a nuclear North Korea, and a China that is spending a whole lot on the PLA every year (not to mention the fact that it probably even conceals its real defense spending), add to that the anti-Japanese sentiment being actively propagated in these two countries, Japan definitely has something to worry about. Maybe having additional free American protection isn’t too bad, no?

And I’m very much puzzled at your response. With the Spratly island hullaballoo (with their periodic Chinese incursions into Philippine territory), the Chinese ZTE NBN scandal here in the Philippines (where we got ripped off of hundreds of millions USD of taxpayer’s money), and our Senate and Congress worrying about retaliation from the Chinese (be it economic or militaristic) if they don’t accede to Chinese demands, well, I don’t know. China doesn’t exactly have a shining rep here. But at least they don’t hate us. But what if you were Japan, and they hate your guts? Makes you wonder.

Anyway, this protest will probably blow over. I don’t think this protest will accomplish anything.

Nuclear power and nuclear weaponry are two completely different applications — you cannot simply “adapt” a power plant into an armory. Japan may very understand how to build nukes, but I doubt it would want to set up the vast infrastructure required to construct any (and why should it if the US will fight for them?).

Regarding NK nukes, I think Japan’s own taste of the effects of nuclear war has convinced it not to pursue “mutually-assured destruction” tactics anytime soon regardless of attack. Plus NK exports its nuclear technology to the Middle East anyway. If anything, relations with South Korea are more important (as the “sibling” of NK within the East Asian sphere), and even at that rate the US’s own self interest in the region holds greater sway.

The construction of nuclear warheads is nothing like the construction of fuel rods for a power reactor. It’s not simply a matter of “stepping up the enrichment” and then dumping it into a missile. Nuclear power plants have nothing to do with weaponization.

Of course Japan certainly has the capability of producing warheads — I think they could feasibly build them reliably within 3 months — but my point is that just because it “can” doesn’t mean it “would want to” (unless if you’re exrapolating Japan’s foreign policies from colored maps).

I’ll simply maintain that there are many reasons (I’ve already suggested a couple) why Japan would choose to remain non-nuclear even in a large-scale conflict, preferring its missile defense programs over Cold War MAD tactics. If it comes to nuclear war, it doesn’t matter who wins: everybody loses, and building nukes for a counter-attack won’t change that.