Japan's Military 'Needs Marines and Drones' 159
arisvega writes "The State of Japan is apparently seeking 'Deter and Respond' military capabilities, perhaps as an artifact from being 'embroiled in a bitter row over islands with China' and being 'deeply concerned by North Korea's nuclear ambitions,' as reported by the BBC. Since the end of WW II, under Article 9 of its post-war constitution, Japan is blocked from the use of force to resolve conflicts except in the case of self-defence. Now, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to expand the scope of Japanese military activities — potentially a highly controversial move that would anger its neighbours. The post-war constitution was of course put in place by the then victorious west, who would now have an interest to fully back up this move: though Japanese officials claim that any new upgrades will not be used for preemptive strikes, the result will be arms and battalions installed close to The People's Republic of China, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and The Russian Federation. It will be interesting to track how this plays out."
Re:Good news for us, I suspect... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:japan is a fascist nation that was spared (Score:3, Informative)
There where a respectable number of British troupes involved in operation Normandy and the final push against Hitler, along with British air support which had a major role. If you think that we where nothing more than a passive part of Hitler's defeat then you likely have only got your information from moves. With most war moves being made in America with Americans as their fist target audience they have easy access to American army props and accents because of this and the desire to appeal to local audiences they do not usual bother to include or even mention and sometime even outright whitewash or re-attribute non American actions.
In reality the defeat of Hitler was caused by a mixture of two flaws the first was the resource costs of the whole 3 front war, in Africa, against Russia and the UK, as long as none of them went down all of them took resources that could have been spent to beat the others.... The second flaw was the Nazis insufficient respect for the greatest Russian general, General Winter which cost them dear. Hitler was already defend at that point without too much further ailed intervention, but without the allies forcing the issue early Russia would have simply steamrollered Europe as their opponents ran out of resources (and probably finished the UK as part of that), and so for saving us from that I am definitely grateful to all those who fought.
Re: japan is a fascist nation that was spared (Score:5, Informative)
The numbers speak for themselves. The number of American troops during the Normandy beach landings = 63,000, British =60,000. The casualty figures are similarly even.
As you say, Hollywood revisionism is to blame for a lot of the misconceptions about the American role in the war. It was a big role, but far from a one-nation-show.