2024-02-17
Repost! It Is a Fabricated Story Intended to Make People Think the V-22 Is Dangerous.
The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s regular column in the latter part of the issue of Shukan Shincho released today.
This article, too, demonstrates that he is a journalist without equal in the postwar world.
A close friend who is an avid reader called me and said that Takayama and I were twin souls.
I immediately agreed.
This is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for people around the world.
Strike Pyongyang.
Japan is surrounded by countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea, whose intelligence one cannot help questioning.
Together with the Self-Defense Forces, the U.S. military keeps watch over these countries and their brazen behavior.
A U.S. military V-22 Osprey carrying out such duties crashed while attempting an emergency landing on Yakushima, killing all eight people aboard.
It was a tragic accident, but NHK’s coverage of it saddened me.
When aircraft of the same type joined the search for those who had died, NHK reported that “residents voiced concerns.”
It was a dangerous aircraft.
The implication was, “Might it crash down on us?”
The Asahi Shimbun likewise had a “50-year-old woman” in Futenma say, “I’m afraid it might crash here someday.”
There are no such “residents.”
It is a fabricated story intended to make people think the V-22 is dangerous.
Certainly, the people of Okinawa are not fond of the U.S. military.
One in three islanders died in the last war.
Mustard gas was dispersed in Ginowan, and chemical munitions that have yet to be disposed of are still being found.
But when U.S. military personnel die in the line of duty, Okinawans feel sorrow and put their hands together in prayer.
They do not behave like Shinji Miyadai of Tokyo Metropolitan University, who rejoiced at Prime Minister Abe’s death.
That is because the people of Okinawa are Japanese.
Yet Asahi not only fabricated residents’ accounts but also reported that the aircraft “flew around out of control,” as though it had a fatal defect.
It is the same as with the Moritomo and Kake controversies.
They manufacture suspicions based on assumptions, without evidence.
They are confident that this was how they brought down the Abe administration.
When the U.S. military grounded all aircraft of the same type, Asahi took it as the death knell for the V-22 and rejoiced.
An invasion of Japan by the People’s Liberation Army would begin with the remote islands.
No aircraft other than the V-22 can carry large numbers of personnel and substantial cargo at high speed while also being capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
Xi Jinping wants to get rid of it.
Asahi writes its articles in accordance with his wishes.
However, there is some basis for Asahi’s image of the V-22 as “dangerous.”
Too much has been demanded of its performance.
Put simply, it forcibly combines the maneuverability of a helicopter with the capabilities of a high-speed transport aircraft.
The reason for these excessive demands actually lies in the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran half a century ago.
Islamic fanatics gathered under Ayatollah Khomeini attacked the U.S. Embassy and took 52 people, including embassy staff, hostage.
War might break out, but the hostages had to be rescued before that happened.
Carter approved a rescue operation centered on helicopters, but helicopters have a short range and are slow.
Even if they rescued the hostages, they would run out of fuel and be unable to escape the country.
To compensate for this:
① Establish a temporary staging base in the desert of central Iran, refuel the helicopters, and fly into Tehran.
② Have a separate force seize an Iranian air base near Tehran and bring in rescue aircraft.
③ Have the helicopter force raid the embassy, rescue the hostages, and fly them to that air base to escape the country.
It was a complicated plan.
However, a sandstorm struck the first staging base, and the helicopters were spotted from a passing bus, so the operation was aborted.
During the withdrawal, a helicopter crashed, killing eight servicemen.
The hostages were finally released a year later, and the United States was humiliated before the world.
In response to this humiliation, development of the Osprey began in the year the hostages were released.
It was to be an aircraft that “could tilt its rotors through 90 degrees for vertical takeoff and landing and carry 32 people over a distance of 3,400 kilometers at a speed of 565 kilometers per hour.”
It took 13 years to reach mass production, and development costs exceeded those of the Apollo program, which sent humans to the Moon.
[The phrase “Apollo Bandai Ghost” in the supplied English text was garbled, so it was reconstructed as “the Apollo program” from the context.]
The Osprey’s development resembled that of the Zero fighter, which was required to combine “high speed, low weight, high maneuverability, and two 20 mm cannons.”
The Zero was completed in three years, although two pilots lost their lives during test flights, but the American version has yet to reach a fully perfected state.
Today, V-22 crews know how high its accident rate is.
Nevertheless, they continue flying every day as test pilots in an effort to erase the humiliation of Tehran.
If a fully perfected version of this hostage rescue aircraft can be built, rescuing Megumi will no longer be merely a dream.
Asahi and NHK should consider the significance of the V-22 as Japanese people, rather than watching Xi Jinping’s reactions.