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Choose whichever you desire:-Armored Personnel CarrierAmerican Power ConversionAssociation for Progressive CommunicationsAccount(ing) Processing CodeActivated Protein CAll Progressive Congress (Nigerian political party)Advanced Process ControlAir Pollution ControlA Perfect Circle (band)Antigen-Presenting CellAllophycocyanin (dye protein)Adenomatous Polyposis ColiAlternative PHP CacheAnaphase Promoting Complex (cell biology)All People's Congress (Sierra Leone)Airline Pilot CentralA Professional CorporationAll Purpose CleanerArgon Plasma CoagulationAdvanced Practice CenterArticle Processing ChargeAlstom Power Conversion (Paris, France)Assessment of Professional CompetenceAmbulatory Payment ClassificationAccess Point Controller (wireless networking)Associate Professional Counselor (various organizations)Area of Particular Concern (conservation)Average Propensity to Consume (income)Association of Professional ChaplainsAnnual Percent Change (measurement)Napa County Airport (airport code, CA)Area Planning Commission (various locations)Acts of the Privy Council (UK)American Pie CouncilAppliance Parts Center (various locations)Administrative Professionals ConferenceAutomatic Power ControlApproach Control (aviation)Atari Punk Console (sound generator)Annual Practising Certificate (various locations)Apostolic Pentecostal Church (church formed in 1935)Ammonium PerchlorateAfrican People's Convention (political party; 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Like most things Marvel, it’s complicated to place things exactly where they might be on a map in our Universe. Usually, no one is giving it that kind of thought. Let’s see what we can do.From the Xandar World-Mind’s database on the associated galaxies which deal with most of the larger empires known by the Xandarians. Such resources are rare and almost never give useful information enough to plot every location sufficiently for any budding astrophysicist.New York City: Nice town, like eight or nine million people live there. Really great food. Very noisy subway. Also serves as the economic capital of the world.Brooklyn: the childhood home of Steven Rogers and Bucky Barnes in 1924.Brooklyn was the site of “Project Brooklyn” where Rogers would receive the super-soldier serum and vita-ray treatment which would turn him into Captain America.Agent Carter would spend time in Brooklyn, New York.Manhattan: One of SHIELD’s headquarters was in New York City. Nick Fury had a safehouse there as well.Manhattan: Serves as the future home of Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Santorum at 177A Bleecker Street, New York City, New York. The Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City is one of the three bases of the Masters of the Mystic Arts alongside the London Sanctum and the Hong Kong Sanctum.Spider-Man web-slings and attends school in Manhattan.Midtown Manhattan: Battle of New York- where the Avengers and SHIELD stave off the Chitauri Invasion of Earth.Manhattan: Where the bulk of the Netflix Defenders do their street-level crime fighting; a great deal of it in Harlem, Chinatown and Hell’s Kitchen.Manhattan: The former Stark Tower and where the Avengers fought the Chitauri while S.H.I.E.L.D. considered nuking the Avengers.California:Stark Industry Headquarters is in Los Angeles, California and the new Avengers facility was filmed in Atlanta.Washington DC.The Triskelion: Served as the primary headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D. It is located on Theodore Roosevelt Island, on the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Virginia. It was damaged after an Insight Helicarrier crashed there during the HYDRA Uprising. The sight was later abandoned after being compromised.Arizona:Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. was the name of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret operation of studying the Tesseract. The studying was done in the top secret subterranean research facility located in an unspecified location in the Mojave Desert. The facility was run by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director Nick Fury. In the comics, this facility was much more interesting being a research center for unusual metahumans, alien technology and the workplace of Wendell Vaughn before he became Quasar. (Which sadly does not happen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe)Sokovia:Somewhere in Eastern Europe (presumably to not have to explain to any nation’s leaders why they were dropping parts of their cities in their stories.) I imagine somewhere near Bosnia and Herzegovina and leave it at that.Novi Grad (a completely fictional city) was capital city of Sokovia, until its destruction during the Battle of Sokovia against Ultron.Wakanda:Wakanda, officially known as the Kingdom of Wakanda, is an isolationist country located in Africa. Wakanda, whose advanced technology allowed them to resist colonization by outside powers.Wakanda is ruled by the heir of the title of Black Panther and is the only known source of the extraterrestrial metal Vibranium. Wakanda’s technology level exceeds most of the technologies used on the Marvel Earth due to their study and application of vibranium. Such technology affords them with a level of economic prosperity enjoyed by few nations.I have covered a bit of Wakanda and the Black Panther on Quora in the articles:If vibranium is the strongest metal in the universe, how could it be cut to make Captain America's shield and Black Panther's suit?Could a Vibranium mask be used to protect the public from Black Bolt's destructive voice?Who would win in a fight: Black Panther or Batman?This list doesn’t cover every single place on Marvel Earth that has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only the ones I thought were interesting.The Nine Worlds:The Marvel Cinematic Universe treats the magically defined Asgard and its relationship to the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil and Thor mythology (which in the comics have been said to be actual other dimensions) as the Nine Realms connected by the technology of the Rainbow Bridge and a nebulously defined cosmic structure dubbed Yggdrasil.Since the realm of Asgard and the Asgardians are defined as a species of interstellar beings who protect and reside over the Nine Worlds, they are part of the galactic community in excellent standing with most worlds.However, they have problematic relationships with Jotunheim, a planet of giant humanoids whose planetary environment has been disrupted since the loss of the legendary Cask of Winters.Helheim which is rumored to be showing up in Thor: Ragnarök as its leader Hela wages war on Asgard because she believes Odin is dead and wants to annex Asgard as her own.Intergalactic Destinations:The Guardians of the Galaxy introduced us to a variety of extraterrestrial worlds which comprise the cosmic part of the Marvel Universe.The Nine Realms are presumably part of our own Galaxy but the rest of the locations were never mapped with any degree of accuracy. It appears starships used by the Kree and related species have sufficient fuel to cross the implied vast interstellar (or even intergalactic distances) presumably via a combinations of wormholes or warp drives.No location references are ever mentioned in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is because the comic information regarding these locations has rarely been cleaned up enough for an astronomer to map the Marvel Universe effectively.The only real references will likely come from comics and will be mentioned for completeness.Hala:In the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Kree Empire is mentioned in Guardians of the Galaxy and in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.While we have never been to the Kree homeworld of Hala, we do hear from them in the Guardians of the Galaxy as the peace agreement with the planet Xander caused rioting throughout the Kree Empire.The peace was after a thousand year war presumably one the Kree wanted to continue having since they were rioting because of the peace treaty.In the comics: The Kree, are a fictional scientifically and technologically advanced militaristic alien race. They are native to the planet Hala in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Kree made their first comic appearance in Fantastic Four #65 (August 1967) (Wikipedia)The Kree-Skrull War: In the comics, the Kree become known to Earth when the Kree and their mortal shape-changing enemies the Skrull fight to determine who would gain control of Earth (and its extremely variable genetic material capable of producing metahumans).The Large Magellanic Cloud is outside the Milky Way Galaxy (where we live) about 160,000 light years away. This is a huge distance. The distance across our own galaxy is only 100,000 light years! This means literally the Kree and their associated species are capable of intergalactic travel with relative ease.XandarIn the MCU: The Xandarians and the Nova Empire are a benevolent hegemony of associated worlds which, under the leadership of the Xandar homeworld, managed to hold off the militaristic Kree Empire for a thousand years.This conflict is known as the Kree Empire-Nova Empire War. Xandar is located in the Andromeda Galaxy at the Eclipsing Binary Star M31V J00442326+4127082. Xandar orbits around three suns.The Xandarian battle with the Kree Empire was never clearly defined as to where it had occurred. We are left in the dark as to whether it was in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, the Andromeda Galaxy or somewhere else entirely. Unlike the comic version of this planet, the Nova Corps are a cadre of pilots who function as police/military operatives in their home galaxy.In the comics: the homeworld of Xandar resides in the Andromeda Galaxy over two million light years away. This would make Xandar even further away from us than the Kree homeworld, Hala, whose location in the Magallenic Cloud makes them neighborly by comparison!The Nova Corps are a group of interstellar police officers empowered by the Nova Corps with extraordinary physical and energy manipulating capabilities lead by the Xandarian World-Mind.The KlynIn the MCU: The Klyn is a prison where Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot were held after their capture by the Nova Corps. The facility was run by the Nova Corps and its location, like so many things in the MCU is never clearly defined. It is presumably inside or at the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy away from civilized folk.In the comics the Klyn is much more interesting. It is the ultimate super-prison where the worst of the galaxy’s criminal element find themselves. It is powered by a matter-antimatter discontinuity in the galactic substance called the Big Crunch.The Klyn was an inescapable, intergalactic prison known to hold very powerful prisoners inside. The scope and level of containment is unknown, but it has demonstrated the capability of holding thousands of very dangerous biological entities and cosmic Elder Gods. Prisoners are exclusively recipients of the Death Penalty, since in most cases inmates survive there less than 3 years.The Klyn was destroyed after the Annihilation Wave used the Big Crunch to enter the positive matter Universe from the Negative Zone. The location of the Kyln was listed as the Verge Galaxy whose location is unknown to Humans.Knowhere:Knowhere is a mining colony located inside the severed head of a Celestial, home of The Collector's museum and the bar, Boot of Jemiah. First seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy, it is the site of sleazy reprobates who hide from the authorities who can’t be bothered to police the region of space site inhabits.Knowhere is a popular spot with pirates, criminals, and traders interested in the rare exotic materials capable of being found inside of the head of Celestial, a being of incredible age and unknown capacities. The Collector made his base there because of its potential to reveal secrets which might increase his power or cachet among his immortal brethren.Knowhere appears as vast a moon which has supported a mining interest for decades with no sign of stopping. It’s location is unknown to Humans. It’s distance from other landmarks is unknown but given the capacities of Kree and Nova Empire ships it is reachable, if you know where it is.In the comics, Knowhere feels more amazing because it also acts as an intergalactic teleportation hub capable of teleporting a person anywhere and anywhen in the Universe (if you know how to calculate the temporal component) using the Continuum Cortex built into the brain stem of the Celestial.Knowhere’s location in the canon comic Universe is listed as the edge of the Universe. It is a site for pilgrims and scientists who want to see the edge of the Universe, though it unknown how they would get there given the distance involved.Who decapitated this Celestial and its former identity are unknown in the MCU or the canon comic Marvel Universe: Which Celestial's head is "Knowhere"? Nowhere’s first appearance was in Nova #8 (2008).Sakarr:A planet, within the Kree influence which was used to recruit units to fill the ranks of Kree military forces. Sakarr, at least of what we can see of it in clips from Thor: Ragnarök, appears to have the wreckage of hundreds of ships from a variety of worlds who are forced to engage in gladiatorial combat.The native Sakaarans are a sentient insectoid race native to the planet which they share with a large number of stranded individuals of many different species.It appears Doctor Banner and Thor have been kidnapped from Earth and forced to engage in the Sakarran gladiatorial events for the gambling pleasure of the Grandmaster, another Elder of the Universe, like the Collector.Sakarr in the comics first appeared in Incredible Hulk #92 (2006) as the beginning of the most famous Hulk story in recent history, the World War Hulk Saga.This is by no means a complete geographic map of every place that is interesting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If there’s someplace you want to know more about, let me know and I will look into it.A map of Marvel’s businesses from EmpireFlippers for those of you seeking to know a bit about the business topology of the Marvel Universe.More fun in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:[SPOILER ALERT] Out of the six, which Infinity stones does Thanos already have in his possession?How does the Infinity Gauntlet work?What powers does the mind gem give the Vision? Can he control people the way Loki did with the scepter?Why was Vision able to lift Thor's hammer in Avengers Age of Ultron?

Q. What was Japan's role in the Cold War?A.Japan always seems invisible within Cold War politics, what role did she play?? by m3ltd0wn02The Myth of the 'Pacifist' Japanese Constitution | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan FocusJapan–United States relations - WikipediaThe United States Marines in the Occupation of JapanDomestic sources of Japanese foreign policyDon't Weaken the U.S.-Japan Alliance, Strengthen It5 Things You May Not Know About the End of World War IIJapan always seems invisible within Cold War politics, what role did she play?? by m3ltd0wn02Certificate of Surrender as a unit of the Third Fleet off Yokohama, Japan for the signing of the agreement. Occupation of Japan - WikipediaInvisibility is not an accident. Japanese involvement within the Cold War was often oblique, even though it was firmly in the US camp. This was in no small measure because of the nature of the US-Japan security relationship. The postwar US-Japan security relationship is one that emerged very quickly in the immediate postwar period, but also quite unexpectedly. Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), the American occupation government, initially saw the end game for Japan was a demilitarized polity that would delegate security issues to the US. For its part, the emerging Japanese civilian government under the conservative LDP politician PM Yoshida Shigeru pursued its own agenda which intersected with American strategic thought in the evolving Cold War. This partnership though was not entirely free of complications and neither side truly got what they wanted out of their ally.The Dai-Ichi Seimei Building which served as SCAP headquarters, c. 1950"Formless" is the best word to describe American strategic thought with regards to Japan's immediate geopolitical future in the Autumn of 1945. SCAP generally did not envision reforming Japan with an eye to meet American needs. Article 9 in the Japanese Constitution outlawed war as a policy and there was a good deal of SCAP directives aimed at the demilitarization of Japanese society and culture. This was in keeping with much of the wartime planning for East Asia was predicated on both having a Nationalist China as well as Commonwealth forces form a bulwark for US interests, especially as the Cold War started to shape up. Events in China with the resumption of the Civil War as well as the general draw down of the British East of Suez almost immediately meant that the US was lacking a regional power partner in East Asia. This did not mean that American planners immediately considered Japan as the nation that could fill this vacuum. As late March 1949, SCAP chief MacArthur claimed in a newspaper interview that:Japan should be the Switzerland of the Far East and neutral for the same reasons Switzerland is neutral - no matter which side she might join, she would inevitably be destroyed.Pace MacArthur's public statements, both the State Department and the Pentagon were considering rearming Japan and having it as the central regional partner.It took the twin shocks of the victory of the Communists in China and the Korean War to transform these thoughts into action. The latter conflict opened up the frightening possibility that Japan could be invaded and the overstretched US forces would be unable to defend the islands. The Korean invasion alarmed the Japanese government as well and it led to the expansion of the National Police Reserve (NPR), a sort of ersatz military that the US armed with a variety of weapons.The NPR laid the foundations for the later Self-Defense Forces (SDF), but it was not a straight line. Yoshida pursued what later be known as the Yoshida Doctrine, in which the Japanese government would prioritize economic growth while relying upon US power for security. The role Yoshida envisioned for the SDF was one that would supplement the American defense network in Japan. Yoshida had both domestic and international motives for this limited commitment. Domestically, an open move against Article 9 would provide fuel for his left-wing opponents in the Diet. Moreover, Yoshida also recognized that economic growth was also more important for immediate domestic needs. And like his German counterpart Adenauer, Yoshida was adamant that civilian control over the military was essential. As one of the sidelined bureaucrats from the wartime government, Yoshida came from a political milieu that looked askance at militarist rule, especially given the scale of the defeat in 1945. Internationally, Yoshida also recognized that the US arguably needed Japanese bases and its geographic position far more than the US needed Japan to make a costly outlay for rearmament. This was one of the key differences between Yoshida and Adenauer as the German Chancellor and a number of his CDU-CSU allies were more leery of American commitments to West German defense.Thus although the common metaphor of the US-Japanese relationship was spear and shield- with the US able to strike out offensively while the SDF guarded US bases-the reality was often more complicated than such a symbiotic metaphor. Pentagon estimates in the late 1950s and early 1950s evaluated the SDF as a credible deterrence to the Soviets, but not a force that could neither project power abroad or be able to stop a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido if the Soviets pressed them. For these reasons, Washington often considered Japanese rearmament tardy and never as thorough to meet the needs of the Cold War in East Asia, despite the US signing Mutual Cooperation Treaties with Japan in 1952, 1960, and 1970. The escalation of the Vietnam War put a further strain on the US-Japanese relationship as both the Johnson and Nixon administrations expected Japan to act as a regional ally and send troops to South Vietnam as its other allies, South Korea and Australia. This was an issue which Tokyo would not budge on, and earned Japan a good deal of resentment in the US during the 1970s. Kissinger in particular was quite vocal in private with his deriding of the Japanese, at one point calling his Tokyo counterparts "small and petty bookkeepers." Such opprobrium was not limited to the corridors of power in the US as the declining American economy of the 1970s fueled resentment that Japan was profiting off of US defenses by not maintaining an army and instead investing the monies it would have used on defense into automobile and consumer electronics industries.Japan–United States relations - WikipediaThe United States Marines in the Occupation of JapanSuch complaints, which only grew during the Japan-bashing of the 1980s, were more than a tad unfair. Japan, despite its foot-dragging, was rearming and building up its own domestic arms industry, which was not only time-consuming, but expensive. The threat of a wide-scale US post-Vietnam draw-down in the region also forced a greater commitment on Tokyo's part to beef up the SDF. Although the naval and air components of the SDF had practiced joint operations with the US in the 1960s, the ground forces started to so in the 1970s. There was a fear within Tokyo that the Vietnam defeat, coupled with the domestic problems in South Korea during the Park dictatorship could have led to a domino effect in which Japan was isolated in the region. The Belenko MiG-25 defection also added urgency to defense expenditures as fears of Soviet retaliation or a commando raid to destroy the plane did concern SDF chiefs. One of the ironies of the 1980s was that despite the Japan-bashing tone of US domestic politics, the US-Japanese security arrangement was the closest it had ever been to reaching the shield-sword metaphor. The Japanese significantly expanded their air defense and ASW forces and the Japanese PM Suzuki in May 1981 actually called the bilateral relationship a military alliance.The cold war most influential defection: MIG -25 (bestchinanews.com)Suzuki's breaking of this taboo in 1981 underscores the real domestic costs of the Yoshida Doctrine and its various post-Yoshida iterations. In short, the alliance put the LDP in a very awkward position. While the Japanese nationalist right was staunchly anti-communist, ideologues like Ishihara Shintaro excoriated the mainstream LDP champions of the alliance as the lap-dogs of American power. This disgruntlement sometimes exploded into violence, such as the assassination of the left-wing politician Asanuma Inejiro by a right-wing nationalist on national tv or the seppuku of the author Mishima Yukio after his private army tried to take over a SDF military base. Such events, which were widely publicized around the world- the photo of Asanuma's assassination won a Pulitzer- created an embarrassing situation for the LDP. From the perspective of the Japanese left, this security arrangement was Japan being co-opted by American imperialism and militarism. While the extremes of left-wing disgruntlement likewise manifested itself in the terrorism like the Japanese Red Army on the extremes, there was always a danger that the Social Democratic Party could use the sotto voce US alliance as a wedge issue to unseat the LDP and unify the splinter-prone Japanese left. Adding to this, the presence of American forces and bases was incredibly unpopular within Japan. The transformation of Okinawa into a hive network of American bases, the perceived footdragging of US military justice to punish crimes committed on Japanese soil, the association of US bases with vices like prostitution and drugs, as well as the extreme unpopularity of the Vietnam conflict within a broad spectrum of the Japanese electorate also made the alliance a political liability for the ruling governments.Domestic sources of Japanese foreign policyYOSHIDA DOCTRINE (1950’S-1973)Economic Growth is Japan’s main objectiveInvolvement in international political affairs should be avoidedTo guarantee security, Japan will rely on US basesKeep military expenditures lowCOROLLARIES TO YOSHIDA DOCTRINE (OBSERVED FROM 1950’S TO 1970S)SDF will not be dispatched abroadJapan will not become a nuclear powerJapan will not export armsJapan will limit defense spending to 1% GDPWHAT IS NEW: HEISEI MILITARIZATIONHollowing out Article 9Shift from “defensive defense”/“comprehensive defense” to “threat-based defense”/”proportional defense”Upgrading and expanding military forcesWillingness to rely on military solutionsLegitimation of use of military force abroadClose operational integration with US forcesGrowing possibility of weapons of mass destruction“Great power realism”The new nationalismCOLD WAR AND US-JAPAN RELATIONSHIPSoviet Union and China take peace offensive to Japan.Indochina tail spinning caused US uneasinessPresident Eisenhower argues “domino theory”.Japan keystone in containment policy in the Far East.Japan Prepares for Soviet Attack | Cold War Era Documentary | 1954Although the mechanisms of the alliance were at their most functional in the 1980s, there were rumblings in political quarters that the alliance needed to change. Suzuki's successor, Nakasone Yasuhiro struck a more militant line versus the Soviets than his predecessors. While such a stance indicated a success for the alliance, it was also a sign that Japan was making tentative steps away from the Yoshida Doctrine's subservient position accorded to Japan. Greater stridency also indicated that Japan could toe an independent line and Gorbachev and his Foreign Ministry began to hold out the prospect of returning the Kuriles and a formal peace treaty with Japan. These feelers foundered for a number of reasons, not the least of which was still the importance of the alliance for Japan, but the fact that the Soviets made them suggests the new vulnerabilities of the alliance in the bubble economy.The alliance itself went into a form of stasis with the end of the Cold War and the bursting of the bubble in the 1990s. This has imparted a degree of inertia into 1990s and beyond; one of the cliches in news coverage of US-Japan relations is the question of whether or not the Yoshida Doctrine is still relevant. For example, contrast this 1993 NYT piece on Japan to this 2014 Japan Today opinion piece. Although over twenty years of history separates the two articles, they are still asking much the same questions.The Myth of the 'Pacifist' Japanese Constitution | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan FocusThe US-Japanese alliance may have been born out of necessity, but its midwife was a very favorable geopolitical situation. Unlike German rearmament which had to take place amidst quite tense negotiations with Western European powers, the rebirth of the Japanese military was a bilateral affair. The Sino-Soviet split also allowed for a more quiet Cold War in the northern Pacific as the USSR and PRC were more leery of each other than Japan. At points in the 1970s and 80s, both Beijing and Tokyo could put aside wartime legacies to find common accord such as joint protests of Soviet deployments of SS-20 missiles in Siberia. Although there were persistent fears of Korean unification by the DPRK, such a scenario did not come to pass. As odd as it sounds in 2017, during the 1960s and 70s it looked to a good many outside observers in the West that Juche was a more successful model than the ROK's military dictatorship. Fear of Korean unification encouraged Tokyo to hew to the alliance, but did not provide enough of a pretext to radically modify it. Some of these conditions do still apply in post-Cold War East Asia, but others do not. US-Japanese relations now operate in a much more multilateral and interconnected world than the one that birthed it in the late-1940s. While current permutations of the Yoshida Doctrine are still alive, the endurance of the alliance itself should not be taken as a given.Japan record-high budget plan approved for 2018, defense spending swellsFor the first time in 70 years, the Japanese parliament has approved the use of its Military Forces, most notably its Navy and Air Forces, through re-interpretation of its pacifist constitution’s article 9, to allow for ‘pre-emptive’ strikes in the collective defense of its allies like the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet. It is interesting to note that the majority of the Japanese public oppose such a move, and as in the U.S., have no real say in the sway of its political power elite spear headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the powerful LDP government.On the surface, the re-engagement of Japan with the world’s most advanced Aegis-class destroyers and F-22 raptors, will raise eyebrows of its Asian neighbors who were victimized by Imperial Japan’s WWII aggressions, and will understandably question what Japan’s true intent is in its sudden rush to loosen the self-imposed military restrictions since the end of WWII. Behind closed doors, this is but one part of the United States’ Asian Pivot strategy in using Japan’s advanced military forces as a proxy for the American containment plan of the rapidly accelerating ‘blue water’ PLA Navy plans for the rise of China and Russia in the Pacific theater. With the tight integration and coordination of similar war fighting ships and equipment, Japan’s Navy is in effect, the U.S. Navy’s 11th Fleet, and supporting the Japanese to allow the potential for foreign conflict involvement increases the containment capacity of the U.S. Naval Command, while allowing Japan to carry the cost of this additional fleet.While the U.S. is delicately balancing allowing its closest Asian ally to restore its full standing military to deploy overseas, after 70 years of suppression from being allowed to be a ‘normal’ country with a standing military, the cooperation and exercises between Japan and its Non-Chinese Asian neighbors should be closely monitored. Most ASEAN and smaller military budget countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia welcome the counter weight of a U.S.-Australian-Japanese lead Pacific Asian Treaty Organization (PATO), an Asian equivalent of NATO, to form to come to the collective defense of smaller countries like the Philippines or Vietnam from unilateral Chinese Military moves to claim the entire South China Sea and eventually the straight of Malaca, which resource poor Japan finds unacceptable for safe Japanese oil and trade shipment passage.While fiery rhetoric will fly, and exhibits of naval and air military exercises and posturing will increase over the coming quarters, it is in the best interest of both Japan and China to continue to build trust, and grow their economic inter dependence for each’s own future prosperity. With the recent stock market crash in China from mid-June this year, we are seeing signs of economic weakness and correction in the mighty growth engine of China, and the overtures by top diplomats from both countries meeting, and announcing a potential ‘high level’ meeting later this year between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Abe, are more signs these complex military posturings may also have more than just an American mastermind dimension to them behind closed doors. Keeping America’s military planners appeased, while building on the strengths and trusts between old Asian rivals to pave way for a TPP busting East Asian Union (an Asian version of the EU), with China/Japan as the French/German equivalent on the European continent, will be an interesting development as the U.S. continues to show signs of empire fatigue.Watch for signs of detente in Japanese and Chinese cooperation, especially any form of military exercise cooperation, as critical signs of a move away from the uni-polar U.S. dominated geopolitical sphere we have enjoyed for the past 70 years.Related Article:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/world/asia/japans-lower-house-passes-bills-giving-military-freer-hand-to-fight.htmlRelated Article:http://news.yahoo.com/top-chinese-japanese-diplomats-meet-beijing-100842916.htmlDon't Weaken the U.S.-Japan Alliance, Strengthen ItCOMMENTARY (The National Interest) August 14, 2017The RAND Blog by Scott W. Harold Photo by Viktorcvetkovic/Getty ImagesThe threat environment in Northeast Asia has been shifting in recent years as China's military modernization and assertiveness, North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations, and Russia's turn towards hostility against the United States are fueling a rise in the risk of armed conflict between major powers. Confronting threats as varied as ISIS, al-Qaeda, Iran, and Ebola, some might wonder if the United States has the resources and will to stay engaged and shape the future of security in the Asia-Pacific, including offering extended deterrent guarantees to its Japanese, South Korean, Filipino, Australian, and Thai allies. Others are asking whether U.S. allies are even worth defending. Are they?I believe that the answer is yes, the United States has the resources to shape the future of the Asia-Pacific, and yes, its allies are worth defending. To abandon U.S. alliances would not only be more costly but also ultimately make America less safe at home. While U.S. defense budgets will remain constrained for some years to come, the U.S. military still retains very substantial hardware, training, doctrinal, operational experience, and human capital advantages. In addition, the United States enjoys the support of major allies who provide basing and access, logistical support, and critical enabling capabilities that ultimately make them important force multipliers for the defense of the U.S. homeland as well as its overseas interests and core values.To abandon U.S. alliances would not only be more costly but also make America less safe at home.As the largest status quo power allied with the United States in East Asia, no country plays a more important role than Japan in supporting the rule of law-based international order. If the United States wants to meet the challenges posed by increasingly well-armed, hostile and autocratic governments bent on intimidating the free world, it needs to continue to broaden and deepen its defense cooperation with Japan and states like it. Below I suggest four urgent priority areas for continued improvements: planning and joint training for a variety of contingencies; additional types of military hardware to bolster deterrence; addressing the basing of U.S. forces in Okinawa; and closer cooperation on innovative thinking about deterrence and war-fighting concepts.Forward, TogetherTo date, the two allies have taken a number of important steps both separately and together, but much more work remains to be done. Japan, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has reinterpreted Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to engage in collective self-defense. The Abe administration has also established a National Security Secrets Act; set up a National Security Secretariat to assist with decisionmaking; lifted restrictions on defense exports; shifted the focus of defense planning scenarios from a ground invasion from the north to an air and naval threat from the southwest; and increased the country's defense budget to approximately $40 billion. It has added critical hardware to the inventory of its Self-Defense Forces, including RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, and advanced F-35 Lightning II fighters. Tokyo has also inducted helicopter carriers into the Maritime Self-Defense Forces, brought on-line new P1 maritime patrol aircraft, and expanded its submarine fleet from 16 to 22 boats, all while developing a 4,000-man rapid reaction amphibious capability and emplacing radar and anti-ship cruise missiles along the coasts of remote islands in the country's southwest. In November 2015, it announced plans to send 500 Ground Self Defense Force troops to one of these islands, Ishigaki, and in March it activated a radar station on another, Yonaguni Island, to be staffed by 160 Ground Self-Defense soldiers. Both islands are close to the Senkakus that China claims and is seeking to undermine Japanese control over. Ultimately, Tokyo plans to station approximately 10,000 troops across the southwest islands chain to meet this threat.For its part, in 2011 the Obama administration announced that it would “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific region (PDF), a policy whose military component aims to create a more geographically distributed, operationally resilient, and politically sustainable force posture across the region. The United States is also improving the capabilities it forward deploys in Japan, and has moved up many of its most advanced capabilities, including the F-22 Raptor, MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to replace the more dated CH-46 Seaknight, an additional AN/TPY-2 radar, Global Hawk UAVs, and P-8maritime patrol aircraft for submarine tracking. In late 2015, the 7th Fleet replaced the aging USS George Washington with the much newer USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.Bilaterally the allies have also taken important steps together. During his 2014 trip to Japan, President Obama noted that the United States would regard an attack on the Senkakus as triggering Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan mutual defense treaty. Following this, in April 2015, the United States and Japan signed new defense guidelines (PDF) that establish the basis for more effective coordination between the allies, including by establishing a new bilateral planning mechanism, an alliance coordination mechanism, and beginning discussions about cooperation in gray zones at sea, in outer space, and in cyberspace. And in December 2015, Tokyo agreed to increase its annual contributions in support of U.S. forces stationed in Japan, promising up to $8 billion over the next five years. The Department of Defense has calculated that this makes Japan the cheapest nation in the world in which to station U.S. forces, cheaper even than bringing them back to the United States…The remainder of this commentary is available at nationalinterest.org.Scott W. Harold is associate director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy, a political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.5 Things You May Not Know About the End of World War IIWorld War II, fought from 1939 to 1945, was the deadliest war in history and involved more than 30 countries around the globe. More than 50 million people lost their lives during the war.TOKYO, Japan- Sept. 2, 1945- Allied sailorsand officers watch Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur sign documents during the surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri. U.S Army photoHere are five things you may not know about Sept. 2, 1945:1. The Instrument of Surrender was signed in Tokyo Bay, Japan.The Instrument of Surrender was actually signed off the coast of Tokyo, Japan. On the morning of Sept. 2, 1945, Japanese representatives signed the surrender document during a ceremony on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri. This day marked the end of World War II.Japanese representatives on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to participate in formal surrender ceremonies on Sept. 2, 1945. U.S. Air Force photo2. The document was signed one month after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. Boeing B-29 aircraft dropped the atomic bomb known as Little Boy on Hiroshima. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This was the first time atomic bombs were used in military operations.3. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur signed the Instrument of Surrender for the United Nations, and Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz signed for the United States.The rank of five-star, or OF-10, was first established in 1944 and is held during wartime. Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz were two of the nine five-star officers in U.S. military history.4. Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s original flag was present during the signing.On the USS Missouri that day was the original American flag flown in 1853 on the USS Powhatan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry (see in the background of the photo below). Perry flew the flag on the first of his two expeditions to Japan. Perry’s expeditions had resulted in the Convention of Kanagawa, which forced the Japanese to open the country to American trade.Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, Sept. 2, 1945. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme Allied commander, reads his speech to open the surrender ceremonies onboard the USS Missouri. Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s original 1853 American flag can be seen in the background. Photo from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives5. World War II did not officially end in 1945.Although Sept. 2, 1945, is known as the end of World War II, the state of war formally ended when the treaty of San Francisco came into force on April 20, 1952. It was a peace treaty with Japan.Source:Department of Defense BlogJapanese Military Power | Japan Self-Defense Forces 2017 - 2018SDFSDF: GroundJapan and Germany military expansionWhy China fears Japan’s military