This summer American Special Operations and Airborne Infantry troops have conducted joint training with the Japanese Self Defense Forces, conducting airborne operations together in Guam for the first time.
This collaboration and public announcement between the United States military and the fairly controversial Japanese Special Operations troops is likely designed to send a message to regional rivals in the Pacific.
As a part of the Defender Pacific 21 exercise, 1st Special Forces Group soldiers partnered with Japanese Self Defense Forces flew in two C-130 aircraft from Tokyo, Japan to Guam, where they conducted a mass tactical simulated combat jump onto an airfield. Hitting the ground, the joint team assembled and hit several training objectives including an anti-aircraft gun and an enemy headquarters building.
“This experience provided valuable insight into JGSDF capabilities and maneuver techniques; giving insight into how we can better support their operations in the future,” a U.S. Special Forces officer is quoted in an Army press release of the event.
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More to the point, he added, "The one element Guam adds is that it showcases the ability to project bi-lateral force throughout the first, second island chain and the whole INDOPACOM [Indo-Pacific Command] region."
While the Japanese unit involved in the exercise was not announced, it would have been the 1st Airborne Brigade and/or a smaller unit garrisoned alongside them, Japan's Special Forces Group.
The decision to create Japanese Special Forces in 2003 was a controversial one, with Article 9 of the Japanese constitution preventing their military from operating outside of Japan and Japanese territorial waters.
These restrictions were placed on Japan after the conclusion of hostilities in World War II by the United States, but have since been reinterpreted by Japanese officials and the Diet to allow self-defense forces to support allies engaged in combat operations.
"It was pretty controversial and as a result it was fairly secretive and they were very careful with how they used it," former 1st Special Forces Group officer Lino Miani said of Japanese Special Forces.
As a Green Beret, he had visibility on the unit's early years as U.S. Special Forces helped support its inception. In 2003 while the Japanese were researching how to create a SOF capability, 1st Special Forces Group helped them develop their Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E).
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According to Miani, Japanese Special Forces are designed to conduct the full spectrum of Special Operations missions on air, land, and sea.
"They're very cagey about their history," he said. "They don't want their lineage to be painted with the same brush as the Kempeitai and the other 2nd Directorate special operations guys got painted within World War II."
That said, their unit challenge coin has written on it, "Bushido is our code," Miani says.
Having regularly conducted training alongside 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis and in Japan itself, the two allied SOF units have built a strong rapport. During the recent training mission in Guam, the ODA involved made sure that bilingual Green Berets were strategically placed within the formation of the joint force to ensure clear lines of communication.
As a new security posture emerges in the Pacific theater, post-World War II norms are increasingly challenged not only by a nuclear North Korea but also by China's aggressive territorial expansion in the South China Sea and belligerence towards neighboring countries such as the Philippines, Japan, and Taiwan.
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Whether these security dynamics evolve into a new Cold War remains to be seen but Japan has publicly aligned itself with the U.S. to confront whatever the future may hold.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.