TOKYO – One of the largest-ever joint training exercises between U.S. and Japanese troops is underway in and around the …
Pacific
“A More Hopeful Future for North Korea”?
North Korea remains a bleak place, and Melanie Kirkpatrick’s new book, Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia’s Underground Railroad, helps explain why. A nuclear-armed family communist dictatorship – who knew the …
Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For?
History Threatens Repeat in Renewed Pacific War
Disputes over islands in Asia reflect a wider failure to reconcile differences among nations stemming from historical conflicts
Measuring Its Impact on the Korean Peninsula
Part Four of Five
One can easily see how South Korean leaders might be concerned when they hear American leaders say that sequestration would be “catastrophic” for the U.S. military and that “the gap between the U.S. …
A Case Study: East Asia
Part Three of Five
The U.S. may have global power and responsibilities, but in recent years, a strategic shift has occurred. China’s military has risen in conjunction with its driving economy, which has prompted a refocus on …
Carrier Wars
U.S. aircraft carriers are a big roll of the dice. The U.S. Navy has begun building the Ford class of carriers, which are going to end up costing $15 billion each once they’re outfitted with the warplanes that are the reason …
Japan Frets over U.S. Support in China Dispute
TOKYO – When the U.S. Defense Secretary arrives in Asia this weekend, his biggest challenge may not be convincing China that America will give its full support to longtime ally Japan in the escalating dispute over islands …
Still No Luck for the V-22 in Japan
TOKYO – If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Marines’ V-22 would have no luck at all – at least not in Japan.
More than 100,000 people turned out on Okinawa on Sunday to protest the planned deployment of the Marines’ new …
“Rest Easy, Granddaddy…”
Epic Battle Of The Pacific, Forgotten In Japan
TOKYO – When dignitaries and guests gather on the remote island of Guadalcanal this week to commemorate the epic battle where Japan’s relentless advance in World War II was finally halted, one group will be conspicuous by …
NoKo’s L’il Kim Outmaneuvers His Military
Time’s ace Asia hand Bill Powell dissects this week’s surprising uncoup by Kim Jong Un in North Korea:
Far from being deposed or assassinated, Kim Jong Un had been promoted by the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) from the rank of general to marshal in the North Korean military. Prior to this announcement, there had been six vice …
No Fading Away For MacArthur Over Here
TOKYO – More than six decades after U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur stepped down as lord and master of Japan, he remains a towering figure of the postwar era – an enigmatic, controversial and yet revered figure who helped …