The first link below, from the BBC, reports that Japanese-Russian tensions are rising considerably. This is another important story that is being largely ignored due to the entire world media being focused on news from Egypt.
At the end of World War II, Russia seized Japan’s Southern Kuril Islands when Japan was weak. Japan now wants its historic islands back. The nations are exchanging “heated comments” about the islands and Japan called a visit by Russia’s president to the islands an “unforgivable outrage.” That is very strong diplomatic language. The Japanese Foreign Minister is traveling to Moscow this week and says he “will stake his political career on securing the islands’ early return.” That’s a very high-stakes position to take in the diplomatic realm. The Japanese people also want the islands back and some Japanese burned a Russian flag over the issue. As the second link notes, Japan and Russia never signed a peace treaty at the end of World War II so they are technically still in a state of war that has been suspended by an informal armistice.
This growing Japanese-Russian tension coincides with a growing Japanese-Chinese dispute due to Japan’s quite-realistic fears about China’s rapidly-growing military power and China’s increased aggressiveness. These issues place Japan at odds with the two main nations in the prophesied Gog-Magog alliance of Ezekiel 38-39: Russia and China. Japan is still a non-nuclear power and Russia and China are large nuclear powers. Obviously, in order to compete on equal terms with Russia and China on the world scene, Japan will have to shed its post-World-War-II pacifist position and become a nuclear power. There is no doubt that Japan could become a significant nuclear power very quickly if it chooses to do so as it has the resources, the technology and the need to do so.
Indeed, President Obama’s strange willingness to quickly abandon Egypt’s President Mubarak, a long-time ally and a force for stability in the Mideast, has put all US allies on notice that as long as Obama is president, no ally can truly trust the USA. Japan relies heavily on the USA’s nuclear shield, but seeing the ease with which Obama dumped a longtime ally and was duped into supporting Iran’s and the Moslem Brotherhood’s efforts to overthrow Mubarak, Japan’s government may be deciding behind closed doors that they cannot rely on the USA’s nuclear shield any longer. Japan also has seen Obama’s willingness to alienate the UK and Israel, longtime historic allies of the USA in the world. Japan may be wondering if they can trust Obama with their national survival. Japan may realize that they need to have their own nuclear weapons in light of Obama’s inability to be steadfast with America’s allies. If Japan does “go nuclear,” I doubt they will publicly announce it but will make sure that other national governments are aware of it so Japan receives both much greater respect on the world scene and a higher degree of national security.
The growing animosity between Japan and the Russian-Chinese alliance fits perfectly with what I have seen for many years in the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy about Japan’s future. In Ezekiel 38:13, a list of Asian nations is listed as not being part of the latter-day Gog-Magog alliance led by Russia, China and Iran. The Bible refers to them as “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all the young lions thereof…” I have long identified these nations as India, Japan and the “young tiger” nations of the Pacific region, and modern events are steadily confirming that identification. Japan and India need each other as both are severely threatened by China. The “young tiger” nations (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, etc.) need to be allied with stronger nations such as India, Japan, Australia, the USA, etc. as they lack the power to defend themselves against China individually.
What is not clear in the Ezekiel 38 prophecy is whether these Asian nations will be allies of the USA and the West when the western nations are attacked by the Gog-Magog alliance at the end of this age, or whether they will form their own independent power bloc to defend themselves against China and its allies. The former possibility is the most likely outcome, but the latter one is still possible. The more that Obama demonstrates that he cannot be relied upon to be a steadfast ally to anyone, the more likely it is this prophesied Asian bloc may yet become an independent alliance.
For detailed information about Japan, India and the “young tiger” nations in biblical prophecy, I invite you to read my articles, What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveals about a Future World War III [PDF] and Japan‘s Role in Bible Prophecy.
My thanks to a reader for tipping me off to these links.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12379331
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/despatches/79497.stm
