Oct 27 05:42 AM US/Eastern(AP) - BETSUKAI, Japan, Oct. 27 (Kyodo) — Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force held its largest-scale homeland defense drill in nearly a quarter century Monday in Hokkaido, mobilizing some 3,000 personnel and using some 2,000 holes dug in a hilly site to hide personnel, tanks and control posts.
The drill took place in the Yausubetsu Maneuver Area on the nation's northernmost main island at a time Japan is closely watching the Russian military, which has been active around Japan and elsewhere, as well as the continued buildup of the Chinese military in recent years.
Participating GSDF personnel engaged in operations such as moving tanks, hiding them in holes, and communicating to each other between holes on the mock battlefield where they are trying to hide from "the enemy."
GSDF Chief of Staff Gen. Ryoichi Oriki said the drill is fundamental to the Japanese defense-oriented policy and aimed at making GSDF personnel aware its importance. It was the first time since 1984 for the GSDF to hold the drill of its kind, according to the GSDF.
Oriki said he hopes the drill will help the GSDF brace for possible future operations outside Japan following the 2004-2006 dispatch to Iraq.
A recent change in the GSDF policy on drills is also behind the drill, GSDF spokesman Col. Kimihiko Kishikawa said.
"We did not hold such a traditional drill for a long time as we were faced with many new tasks such as international cooperation and operations against possible guerrilla commando attacks in the near past," Kishikawa said.
"We tended to focus too much on new kinds of drills trying to deal with those matters," Kishikawa said.
But the GSDF realized that expertise in the traditional hole-digging exercises for defensive purposes can be applied to various kinds of future overseas activities, Kishikawa said, denying the force assumes any particular country as a potential enemy in the drill.
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