I read a new Iwanami Library titled as "U.S. Military stationed in Japan" wrote by Mr. Hiromichi Umebayashi (The first edition published May 20, 2002 ISBN4-00-430783-X) In the early part of his article, he referred to the missile (Debodon) shooting by North Korea on Aigist 31, 1998. They did it without any pre-notification so that the criticism against them went up in Japan. At the same time, the opposition parties as well as mass media investigated the responsibility of Japanese government which could not predict it before hand.

However, the author wrote ”The Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) and U.S. military stationed in Japan were eagerly waiting for the launching of North Korean rocket as they had information that it would be shot up soon...The 'Myoko', an aegis ship of the Maritime Self Defense Forces (MSDF,) was on alert in Japan sea from two weeks before. Their radar caught an flying object just after the launching of missile and traced its wake. Furthermore, a precaution plane E2C and a data collecting plane EP3 of Air Slef Defense Forces were in the air to get information. The radar sight of the Miho Air Base which is near the Korean peninsula monitored radio waves from North Korea.

Japan called it as a missile, but U.S. military announced that they failed to shoot up a satellite. Mr. Umebayashi had the U.S. government documents which his collaborators in U.S. requested to be disclosed. He analyzed them together with information he collected in Japan in the same way by requesting the governments some administrative documents to be disclosed. I think what he wrote in his article is accurate. The U.S. invasion to Iraq is said to be not far from now, It would be better for you to have knowledge about the U.S. forces stationed in Japan and also their bases inside Japan. The book is my recommendation.

Back to Calender