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[[image - Otto P. Weyland and Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.]]

Gen. O. P. Weyland, left, and Brig. Gen. Ben O. Davis, 13th Air Task Force chief

[[image - Wang Shuming and Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.]]

Gen. "Tiger" Wang, left, head of Chinese Air Force, presents a banner to Gen. Davis

include 160,000 men, the Maritime Force nearly 23,000, and there is an Air Force of about 14,500 men.

Meantime, Japanese industry, including an aircraft industry, has been getting back on its feet, and within the next year is expected to unveil its first production jet fighter.

Obviously, as the JSDF grows and progresses, US ground forces can be withdrawn from the Land of the Rising Sun. The shift already is underway. The northern island of Hokkaido, formerly guarded by the US First Cavalry Division, now is defended by the JSDF Northern Corps. The JSDF has also taken over the defense of the southern island of Kyushu, where formerly the US 508th Airborne Regiment was based. Other JSDF units guard the Sendai, Tokyo and Osaka areas on Honshu.

But it will be many a year, assuming that the anti-defense factions in Japan do not gain control, before Japan can produce either the trained manpower or modern equipment for an adequate defense-particularly in the air. Until then, also under the terms of the 1945 surrender, the defense of Japan will remain primarily an American responsibility.

KOREA

It has been three years since the shooting stopped in Korea. The war-ravaged country is at peace, but it is an uneasy peace.

As yet the ultimate goal of the 1953 armistice-the unification of North and South Korea through international negotiation-has not been achieved. Nor is there much prospect of such an achievement within the foreseeable future. In accordance with the terms of the truce agreement, the United Nations forces have been materially reduced. Most of the Fifth Air Force units which piled up an impressive MIG-killing record have been pulled back to Japan and Okinawa; US ground forces have been cut from eight to two divisions, and of the 15 other countries which sent troops to Korea only about 2,000 United Kingdom troops, a 5,500-man Turkish brigade, a battalion of Ethiopians and a small company of Thai infantry remain on the on the scene.

On the other hand, the Republic of Korea and the UN assert the Communists in North Korea have continued to build up their military strength in direct violation of the truce. To date, the UN has accused the Communists of at least 75 truce violations. The UN claims also that the Communists have brought into North Korea between 400 and 500 new combat aircraft, more than half of which are Russian-made jet fighters and bombers.

In contrast, the equipment of the ROK forces is for the most part obsolete. For instance, if the shooting were to start again in Korea, the ROK air force would have to depend on a small force of World War II F-51 piston engine fighters to hold off the North Korean MIGs until UN jets could again come to the rescue.

Despite this lack of modern equipment, the ROK forces are perhaps better able to defend their half of the Korean peninsula than they were when the Communist invasion started six years ago. The ROK military force now numbers about 650,000 in 20 active and 10 reserve divisions.

Admiral Arthur Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his recent visit to the Far East called attention to the obsolescence of the ROK equipment and asserted that modern arms and aircraft must be provided in view of the North Korean buildup.

OKINAWA

Only the naive or the uninitiated could avoid being impressed by the military build-up that has taken place on this, the major island in the Ryukyu chain. Airfields dot the island, and just outside Naha, the capital, Kadena Air Base has taken on the appearance of a veritable "Gibraltar of the Pacific" with its modern earthquake- and typhoon-proof buildings.

With the possible exception of Honolulu, nowhere in the Pacific has there been such a concentration of military facilities in a comparable small area. And virtually all of the developments have come in the past 10 years, when the islands were mandated to the US following World War II.

The government of the Ryukyus is civilian-administered by USCAR, or the United States Administration of the Ryukyu Islands-but it is the American Armed Forces which dominate the scene. Under the USCAR, there is a native government consisting of legislative, executive and judicial departments, and all public offices and law courts are run by the natives under USCAR supervision.

Never before in the long history of the islands, which have been under the control at various times of both Japan and China, have the natives enjoyed such prosperity and well-being. Road-building, housing construction and military base expansion have brought full employment, and provided Okinawans with the funds to buy washing machines, refrigerators and other American household appliances-

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