Japan in line of fire in a Taiwan crisis if missile defense plan goes ahead

Ops plan reportedly involves deployment of US mobile missile units to island chain

- Walter Sim

TOKYO - The pieces of the strategic puzzle of how the US and its security allies, Japan and the Philippines, will respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan are falling into place.

Under an operations plan, it will reportedly involve the deployment of sophisticated US missile units to the theater of war. This move, however, puts Japan in the direct line of fire and has raised questions about the country's pacifism since the end of World War II.

Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported on Nov 24 that Tokyo and Washington will in December compile their first joint military operations plan for the scenario of an imminent Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

A key policy is the deployment of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) to Japan's Nansei island chain, which stretches 1,200km south-west from the tip of Kyushu to Yonaguni, just 111km from Taiwan. This is part of the overall goal to set up a missile network along the first island chain of defense, which includes the Nansei islands and the Philippines.

The joint plan, as reported by Kyodo News, also involves the setting-up of temporary US military bases as part of Expeditionary Forward Basing Operations, which centers on the dispersed deployment of small units. Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) will provide logistical support.

Dr Satoru Nagao, a Tokyo-based non-resident fellow at the Hudson Institute think-tank, told The Straits Times that he saw no other way but for China to attack Japan if it wants to seize Taiwan.

"If China does not attack Japan, Japan will be a sacred place for US military forces to support Taiwan," he said, noting that Japan has given the green light for fighter jets to take off from civilian airports across the Nansei islands.