In a piece of news largely ignored by the world press, the Japanese Navy now has its first overseas naval base since World War II. It is located on the African continent at Djibouti, which is a French protectorate in the Gulf of Aden. Japanese Navy ships will operate out of Djibouti in cooperation with French, American and other NATO warships which use Djibouti as a base for NATO ground, air and naval forces. Indeed, Djibouti is the largest overseas French military base.
Adding Japanese warships to the NATO naval flotilla in the Gulf of Aden is particularly vital as it guards the southern approaches to Egypt’s Suez Canal. With Egypt’s future government hanging in the balance, it is vital to have more allied warships in that location to block any Iranian initiatives in the event the radical Islamic Moslem Brotherhood takes over Egypt. I expect the Egyptian military will make sure that doesn’t happen, but there are no guarantees at this point and the entire situation in Egypt is in a dangerous state of flux.
Japan’s willingness to send its warships to a NATO base is also an important step that is consistent with my views about Ezekiel 38’s prophecy. I have long identified Japan as the nation of “Tarshish” in Ezekiel 38:13 which is prophesied to not be part of the Asian Gog-Magog alliance which will eventually attack the USA, NATO and their global allies at the end of this age. That Japan is working steadily closer with the militaries of the USA and NATO supports the viewpoint previously expressed at this website. For more about Japan’s role in latter-day events, I invite you to read the article, Japan’s Role in Biblical Prophecy, available at the Articles tab of this website.
Japan’s Constitution mandates that it only have a “Self-Defense” force, so this overseas deployment of Japanese warships is stretching its Constitutional mandate without breaking it. Since Japan is dependent on Mideast oil supplies, basing Japanese warships along the oil transit routes is an example of “forward deployment” of Japan’s defense forces acting in Japanese interests.
My thanks to a reader for sending me the first link below.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/djibouti.htm
