A former US Marine colonel who served as a Marine attache at the US Embassy in Tokyo has raised concern that some in the US administration sympathize with arguments for pulling American forces back to the second island chain — the line running from Japan through Guam to the Marianas, behind the first island chain that stretches past Taiwan and the Nansei Islands.
Grant Newsham, now a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, spoke to the Asahi Shimbun as Japan and the US held the joint Keen Sword exercise at sites across Japan from October 19 to 29.
He said the Marine Corps has spent years preparing for a Taiwan contingency. If China attacked, the Navy and Air Force would take the main role, while Marines could seal the gaps in the Nansei Islands — including the sea between Yonaguni and Taiwan and the Miyako Strait — with long-range missiles.
Missiles, not a ground war
Newsham said the Marines' contribution would be long-range fire from ground and air launchers rather than a large ground war. Chinese forces trying to swing around Taiwan's northern or southern tip toward its east coast would face hard-to-detect Marine missile units and aircraft and take serious losses, he said.
The Marines have also raised their ability to fight alongside the Ground Self-Defense Force in recent years, and are preparing to operate from northern Luzon, the Bashi Channel and the Batan Islands in the Philippines, he said.
Asked about reports that the Marines used their Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept in combat for the first time in operations against Iran, Newsham described a force that disperses small units forward rather than massing at large bases.
“The Marines have prepared for a Taiwan contingency for many years.”Grant Newsham, senior research fellow, Japan Forum for Strategic Studies
The interview was published in the Asahi Shimbun's series on global security crises, which has drawn on interviews with more than 520 experts in Japan and abroad.