Japan’s Marines have returned . . . to defend Senkakus, Okinawa from China

Geostrategy-Direct.com Rising tension between Japan and China intensifying has led the Japanese Marines to re-form a fighting force that has not been seen since World War II. Concerns that Beijing might seize outlying islands led to the formation in 2018 of the 2,100-man Amphibious Rapid Response Brigade (ARDB), based at Sasebo on Kyushu—formed under the ground force’s first unified command. This year, ARDB soldiers with AAVs participated in the 2019 Iron Fist war games at Camp Pendleton, California in February, then in June took part in an amphibious landing exercise in Australia. “Seventy-five years ago, the sight of 300 Japanese marines storming onto a Queensland beach in hulking tracked amphibious…