Japanese And United States Military Prepare Draft Joint Operation Plan In Case Of Contingency In Taiwan

Illustration of military cooperation between Japan and the United States. (Wikimedia Commons/US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Michael Smith)

JAKARTA - Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and the US military have drawn up a draft joint operation plan that would allow the setting up of attack bases along the southwestern Nansei Island chain, in the event of a Taiwanese contingency, according to a Japanese government source.

Japan and the United States are likely to agree to start cooperating on formalizing the operation plan, when their foreign and defense heads meet in early January under a '2+2' framework, the source told Kyodo News as quoted Dec. 23.

The development is likely to be met with backlash from China, which considers the self-ruled island of Taiwan a renegade province and wants to reunite it with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Under the draft plan, the U.S. Marines will establish a temporary attack base in the early stages of the contingency on the Nansei Islands, a chain that stretches southwest from Japan's Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures to Taiwan. Okinawa hosts most of the US military installations in Japan.

The US military will get support from the SDF to send troops to the islands if a Taiwanese contingency appears imminent, the sources added.

Such a deployment, however, would subject the islands to a Chinese military attack, endangering the lives of the residents there. Legal changes will be needed in Japan to make the plan a reality, the source explained.

Joint exercises with Japanese and US warships. (Wikimedia Commons/US Navy/MC2 Markus Castaneda)

Japanese and US SDF forces have about 40 candidate sites along the Nansei chain, which consists of about 200 islands, including uninhabited ones.

Most sites have residents and islands where the SDF has deployed or plans to deploy missile units, Amami-Oshima, Miyako and Ishigaki near the Senkaku Islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China, are among the candidates, the sources said.

As longtime security allies, Japan and the United States have strengthened defense cooperation and increased interoperability of the SDF and the US military. They face threats from China's military build-up and assertive movement at sea and North Korea's nuclear and missile development.

The US Marine Corps has advanced expeditionary base operations manuals for sending Marines in small formations to required locations, apparently in light of China's decisive move.

Meanwhile, a Japanese government source said the US Indo-Pacific Command had proposed to the SDF to make a joint operation plan.

The condition under which the US military will establish a temporary base is when the Japanese government judges that a conflict between the Chinese and Taiwanese militaries will damage Japan's peace and security, if left as it is, the source explained.

Artillery firing drills by the Japanese and US militaries. (Wikimedia Commons/Staff Sgt. Mark Miranda)

In such a scenario, the US military would deploy a high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) to a temporary base location, while the SDF would be tasked with logistical support by providing ammunition and fuel. To prevent an attack, the US Marines will change the location of the base, the source added.

It is known that the United States has hardened its stance against China because of competing economic, technological, and military advantages. Japan, for its part, has seen its relationship with China fall apart over history and the Senkaku, a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Underscoring the heightened vigilance, Japan and the United States emphasized in a joint statement the importance of "peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" when their leaders met in April.

It is the first time in half a century that the leaders of the two countries have mentioned Taiwan in a statement. The United States will help Taiwan if China turns to the use of force.

To note, during a Taiwan think-tank event in early December, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in any case Taiwan would also become a state of emergency for Japan and for the Japan-US security alliance.