The Japanese Frontline

ABC – Transcript

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: After decades of peace, Japan is confronting the possibility of war with a resurgent Russia, North Korea and, crucially, a more powerful China on its doorstep, Japan is putting on a show of force.

PROF YOKO IWAMA: We have to start getting ready. We don't really know how much time we have.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Japan’s embarking on its biggest military expansion since the Second World War. And it’s fortifying a new frontline on its islands near Taiwan. But some locals fear these new military bases will turn their islands into a war zone.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO:  Whoever creates or cooks up the war are the ones that I really hate.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: More than 70 years since it renounced war, the country is again preparing for conflict. The aim is to prevent China from going to war by showing Japan and its allies will put up a fight. But is this deterrence going to work?  Or will it help create the conflict Japan is trying to avoid?

It’s the morning rush at this military base in southern Japan. The base is home to a specialised team of soldiers called the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, or ARDB.

PLATOON LEADER: Rules for ARDB combatants!

SOLDIERS: The rules for ARDB combatants!

PLATOON LEADER: Look ahead and prepare carefully!

SOLDIERS: Look ahead and prepare carefully!

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: The brigade is like the US Marines, trained to launch assaults from the sea. This morning, the endurance of these new recruits is being tested in the pool. Nearby, 33 year old captain Shogo Iwai is training with his unit. He joined the self-defence forces when he was only 15.

CAPT. SHOGO IWAI: My mother was against it. When I was a high school student she told me I should enjoy life first and then join the Self-Defence Forces. But I overcame her opposition and joined.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: These drills simulate jumping from a helicopter. In a real war, Captain Iwai and his team could be sent in as a covert reconnaissance unit ahead of a full-scale beach landing. Some, jumping out for the first time are nervous.

CAPT. SHOGO IWAI: It’s a situation where we have to descend into enemy territory. So if we don’t control, we risk the lives of fellow soldiers and the safety of the helicopter. So I tell them to think about that when they’re jumping. I tell them to go all out.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: his brigade was created five years ago after hostile confrontations with Beijing over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Major Shingo Nashinoki is the unit’s commander.

MAJOR SHINGO NASHINOKI: Nice to meet you.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Just having a looking at your amphibious assault vehicles you've got here.

MAJOR SHINGO NASHINOKI: The security environment surrounding our country has become very severe. And it will continue to get more and more severe. A special feature of Japan is that it has a lot of islands. We must ensure that these islands are firmly protected. You don't know where there are enemies, obstacles and landmines, and so it's extremely dangerous and scary. 

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: So why did you pick this specific job?

MAJOR SHINGO NASHINOKI:  It's to protect the Japan I love.

JAMES OATEN, REPORTER: A 15-minute drive away is America's Sasebo naval base, a crucial supply point for US ships in the Pacific and Indian oceans. It’s one of 13 American military bases on Japanese soil. Every morning, naval officers here salute the US-Japan alliance.

US SOLDIER: Ready to. Right face. Forward march.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Since the end of the Second World War, American military bases like this have been the backbone of Japan's defence. They give the US a vital launching point for military operations, helping ensure its position as Asia's dominant superpower. But a rising China is challenging. American dominance. In global terms, the US military is more powerful than China’s, but China’s defence forces have grown rapidly in the region. And it’s provoking intense debate in Japan.

YOKO IWAMA: Suddenly we are waking up to the potential threat that China is posing. And in order to face that we're very poorly prepared. And what's more worrying is that the Americans are very poorly prepared in this region.

MAJOR SHINGO NASHINOKI: We’re in an extremely difficult security environment and the Taiwan Strait is naturally one of the issues.

KOICHI NAKANO: If the US gets involved in Taiwan, and then if Japan also provides even rear area support, then China would start to retaliate probably against the US bases based in Japan at the very least.

YOKO IWAMA: If there is a mutual conflict in the Taiwan Strait I consider it very unlikely that we can stay out of it.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Why?

YOKO IWAMA:  Some of our islands are very close to Taiwan. We are in the frontline, really. I think everybody feels that.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: I’m heading to the southwest to see Japan's new frontline up close. Two-thousand kilometres from Tokyo, but under 300 kilometres from Taiwan is the island of Ishigaki. It's part of the Okinawan region. Ishigaki is a popular tourist destination and home to fishermen and fruit growers like Ryutaro Kinjo.

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer: There's still so much nature here and the people are really relaxed.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Every morning Ryutaro takes the short trip to his family fruit farm. He almost had a very different life. Nine years ago, he was working in corporate America.

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer:  I worked as a businessman there but somehow it didn’t feel right so I ended up coming back.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Tetsuhiro Kinjo hopes his son will one day take over the family farm.

TETSUHIRO KINJO:  It's nice to have a successor. I’m really relieved.

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer: I'll take you there and show you.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: But Ryutaro fears this idyllic lifestyle is under threat. To show me why, he takes me for a drive. Less than a kilometre away, sticking out from the surrounding hills, is a huge construction site.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: So what are we looking at?

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer: That would be a military base.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter:  How did you first find out about this base?

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer: When I see newspaper.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: So quite a surprise?

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer: Yes, much surprise.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: When the base is finished it will be home to around 600 soldiers, stockpiles of ammunition and missiles. It’s created a lot of tension and division in this community.

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer:  The hardest thing is seeing how locals aren’t getting on with each other and relationships are falling apart.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Has this base divided the community?

RYUTARO KINJO, Farmer:   I think.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: To understand Ishigaki's strategic importance to Japan you have to see how it fits into the bigger picture. It’s part of long chain of islands in the southwest where Japan's been building military bases in recent years: Yonaguni, Ishigaki, Miyako, Amami Oshima and Mageshima.

YOKO IWAMA: These dotted islands are kind of like fences that hold in the Chinese, and that's exactly because of that, they don't really like it. And they will definitely not like us moving our military assets down there. That’s the whole point of it.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: the Okinawan islands have been wedged between major military powers before. This history has left an indelible mark.

ARCHIVAL NEWSREEL NARRATION: On Okinawa, we’ve trapped and destroyed over of 100,000 of their best troops.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: in the dying days of the war in the Pacific, the Japanese Imperial Army was putting up a final stand in the Okinawan islands.

ARCHIVAL NEWSREEL NARRATION:  We’re going to destroy Japan’s army, Japan’s navy, Japan’s whole power to wage war.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: On Ishigaki, the Imperial Army thought a US invasion was imminent. Fearing the locals might give up information to the Americans, the Japanese army forced them to move into the jungle.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO: Some were carrying things on the shoulder, women mostly on their heads and on their back, carrying babies on back and so forth.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Setsuko Yamazato was only seven when her family was brought here.

"How does it feel to be standing here?"

SETSUKO YAMAZATO:  I don't actually, I don't even want to come here and think back of those days. It brings all that memory back to me.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Setsuko’s too frail to go any further, but her friend, historian Norikazu Ishido, takes me deeper into the jungle.

NORIKAZU ISHIDO, Historian: They were actually forced to evacuate here by military order, even though they knew the area was malaria-infested. There was no food here. This is the ruins of a furnace from that time. By eating things like lizards, box turtles, and reptiles, somehow they just managed to survive. But they became malnourished, their bodies deteriorated rapidly. They became ill with malaria, shivering with high fevers, and sadly many people died.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO:  My mother, she and I caught malaria on the same night. We were just hugging each other, lying down, trembling, shaking like something, and couldn't stop the fever and so forth. It continued. Then it went on like this, like that until May 17th when she died.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Malaria killed around two and half thousand Ishigaki locals.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO: I feel those who died of malaria and things that they were all sacrificed by Japanese military.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Setsuko’s baby sister also died, of starvation.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO:  I think I didn't know what death meant. It took me a while before I really got lonely losing my sister, mother and so forth. So at that time, I didn't feel anything.  I want this not to happen again. Never, never, never again.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: It’s a mission statement Setsuko has lived by.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO: "We don’t need this one or this one. Take this one."

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: The veteran activist runs the so-called “society of grannies to protect life and livelihood”.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO: If we have a missile base, that will be the first object that enemies would aim for.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Every Sunday, Setsuko and her friends rally against the new military base. They chant in the Okinawan dialect.

RURIKO TONOKI:  We’re not very powerful but we’re doing all we can.  In recent newspapers, they report as if it’s a done deal that Ishigaki Island will become a battlefield. It’s making me so furious.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: You’ve been fighting for many years – are you getting tired from fighting?

SETSUKO YAMAZATO: Tired? Never. Looks to me it’s become one of my hobbies. Favourite hobbies. I never get tired from fighting.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: But the grannies are up against powerful forces. Ishigaki’s mayor, Yoshitaka Nakayama, is officially an independent - but was endorsed by the country’s ruling party – the LDP. He’s an ardent supporter of the base.  In last year’s elections, the mayor campaigned on a pro-base platform, and had a convincing win against his anti-base rival.

"This is your fourth term as mayor?"

MAYOR YOSHITAKA NAKAYAMA: Yes I've been mayor for 13 years and I have held four elections, and in each of those elections, the deployment of the Self-Defence Forces was an issue.  If there were no Self-Defence Forces stationed in Ishigaki, it would be a gap in our defence, so it would be the easiest place for China to attack. So I think it’s necessary to build an SDF base here.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Some feel Japan needs to do even more to keep China at bay. Local councillor Hitoshi Nakama is part fisherman, part activist. For decades he’s been visiting a set of disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan, and the Diaoyu in China.

HITOSHI NAKAMA: You can only go there as a fisherman. I wouldn’t be able to go there if I said I was a councillor. So what’s my occupation? Fisherman.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Why do you do this?

HITOSHI NAKAMA: Because I’m crazy.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: He’s been documenting how an increasingly powerful China is asserting itself. Armed with a camera, Hitoshi films scenes like these for audiences in Japan.

HITOSHI NAKAMA: I think it’s my duty to make the Japanese people aware of the current situation by filming and taking photo.  If I don't do it, nobody else will. The Chinese ships are coming as close as 30 metres to my boat. This is Japanese territorial waters. There are two Chinese ships in the territorial waters around Senkaku.  They’re not leaving. They’re entering our waters with impunity and without hesitation. It’s been more than dangerous for me and I really wonder what’s going to happen. We’ve got to a situation where we could be attacked at any time. That's not an exaggeration.

"Ok it’s fine to get on."

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: To avoid escalating conflict with China, Japan has banned people from landing on the islands. Before every trip to the Senkaku, coast guard officials search Hitoshi’s boat from top to bottom.

HITOSHI NAKAMA: They’re checking whether I have a boat or something to land with. Whether I've got something loaded on board, whether I have a drone or not.  When we’re going into Japanese territory and territorial waters,  why do we need on-site inspections ?  I’m saying, we don't need to do these things.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: As Hitoshi heads back to the disputed islands, he’s tracked by the coast guard for the entire journey.

HITOSHI NAKAMA: This place called  Okinawa was originally connected to China. We have always said that China was a wonderful, a good country, but the moment it became a superpower, it began to bully weaker countries. I believe that the Japanese people should firmly protect their territory and their waters.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Further north, on the island of Amami I've been invited to see Japan's amphibious assault team in action.  The national media is along for the ride. So, too, are military observers from friendly nations, including Australia.

JACOB ALSFORD: The US and Japan are obviously one of our strongest allies, so the opportunity to be here and see how they operate realty benefits us.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Today, these soldiers are preparing to launch a beach assault.

JACOB ALSFORD: These amphibious activities are inherently getting more complex and more sophisticated.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: These drills are part of massive 10-day exercises between Japanese and US forces. 36,000 troops are taking part in exercise 'Keen Sword', some of the biggest ever held on Japanese soil. As the amphibious assault vehicles power towards the beach plumes of smoke are deployed as cover. Within moments, the vehicles are on the sand and the soldiers storm out. Hundreds of locals have gathered to watch the spectacle.

WOMAN:  When they do these exercises, I feel a lot safer. It feels a little closer to war, but we can't protect our own lives if we don't defend ourselves.

KENICHI TAMOTSU: It’s bad to have too much. It's also bad to have none at all, so it's a difficult balance to strike.

MASAYUKI SEKI: Weapons cannot create peace. Just because you have missiles doesn't mean you're safe. On the contrary, if you have missiles, you can be attacked.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Japan is now betting that more weapons will make it safer. It’s vowed to increase defence spending by almost 60 per cent over the next five years. High on the shopping list are hundreds of new missiles that can strike further than ever before, including as far as the Chinese mainland.

YOKO IWAMA : If there's certain military moves that really affects our national interest, then we do have the capability to try to stop that operation by hitting whatever assets that's necessary to be hit. Like the port, like the airfield.  We are not actually thinking about fighting such a war. We are thinking about deterrence, meaning that telling the Chinese that we do have these capabilities. If you do things that we do not want you to do, this is the cost you might have to pay.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter:  Polls show the majority of people support expanding the military, but there’s strong opposition to raising taxes to pay for it.

PROF KOICHI NAKANO: Japan's public finance is in a horrible situation. Once you start to talk about money, you know, it gets more real. People start to think, well, do we really need that much? Or is that really going to help?

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Are these bases that Japan has built in the far southwest justified?

PROF KOICHI NAKANO: No. Well, they’re so close to China. And if Japan can hit China, China can hit Japan. And they can hit Japan so many more times more. They have thousands of missiles. Japan is not going to have thousands of missiles without going bankrupt. So I think it's just for show.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: You think it will antagonise China?

PROF KOICHI NAKANO: I think it will.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: On Ishigaki, I'm joining Ryutaro and his family for their weekly lunch.

"Is this soba?"

MOTHER: Yes. Okinawa soba.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: As the base nears completion, their anxiety is growing.

YOKO KINJO: I'm a little worried about my children and my grandchildren.

TETSUHIRO KINJO:  Ryutaro's generation will carry on the future of Ishigaki from now on. I hope they do their best to protect Ishigaki.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: Ryutaro has accepted the challenge. He’s taken the council to court to pressure it to hold a referendum giving locals a say on whether or not they want a base. But the council and the mayor are opposed.

MAYOR NAKAYAMA: I think it’s very dangerous to let Ishigaki locals decide by referendum issues of national defence and whether or not to have a military base here.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter: But Ryutaro feels the community should be heard.

RYUTARO : The referendum is an opportunity for the residents to express their opinions and recognise the opinions of the other side.  I want to reduce the division between the islanders. Things may not go back to how they were, but I want us to help each other as much as we can.

JAMES OATEN, Reporter:  On a local farm, Ryutaro joins some old high school friends to play music. This Okinawan folk song is called Gettou. It’s about remembering the horror Okinawans endured in the Second World War and praying it never happens again.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO:  The Pacific War is supposed to have ended, but we don’t feel like it has. We can’t feel that for real.

SHOGO IWAI: I've been in the SDF since I was 15 years old and my mother still worries. I tell her that by training hard I'm going to complete my mission and that I'm going to come back alive.

SETSUKO YAMAZATO:  This next war, if it happens, everyone will be the losers I think.