JAPAN is back. After almost 70 years of military obscurity, the island nation is exploiting loopholes in its pacifist constitution to rebuild its military. But what does the US think?

Seventy years ago this week, United States and British forces attacked the Ryukyu Islands. Chief among the territory — which Japan regards as part of its home territory — was Okinawa island.

Within months Imperial Japan was defeated, and a strict new pacifist constitution imposed.

Now, as China races to embrace more of the East and South China Seas, and the United States’ “pivot” to Asia has slowed, it needs strong allies in the Pacific. Japan is that.

FLASHPOINT ASIA: The rising tensions to Australia’s north

Senior US and Japanese military officers say they hope the Japanese navy may soon be freed up to play a more active role in the Pacific and beyond, plying some of the world’s most hotly contested waters.

But, at home, Japan remains divided over proposed changes in the role it should play in regional security issues.

The wounds of World War II run deep. And not just inside Japan. Many Asian nations remain uncomfortable with the idea. Memories of Japan’s aircraft carriers and warships storming across the Pacific in 1942 remain strong.

A NEW RISING SUN

Vice Adm. Robert Thomas, commander of the US Seventh Fleet, said he expects revisions headed for approval in Japan’s parliament will make it easier for the Japanese and allied navies to cooperate more smoothly in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

It’s also one of the reasons Washington is urging an Australia-Japan submarine deal: It sees such a multibillion-dollar project as strengthening regional defence ties.

Japan is shifting its defence priorities from northern reaches near Russia to the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands — part of the same Ryukyu Island chain assaulted exactly 70 years ago.

ASIAN ARMS RACE: Expensive and extensive shopping list of weapons

Japan is setting up an amphibious deployment unit similar to the US.

Marines to respond quickly to any invasion of those islands and is also planning to upgrade its air defences with F-35 stealth fighters and Global Hawk drones.

It also includes a force of small aircraft carriers (though you cannot call them that, they’re ‘helicopter destroyers’).

Defence analysis now regard Japan as having the fifth most powerful navy in the world, Behind the US, Russia, China and the United Kingdom.

COLLECTIVE THINKING

One of the key strategic goals for Tokyo and Washington is to allow Japan to participate in what is known as collective self-defence, meaning that it would be able to come to the aid of an ally under attack even if that did not entail a direct attack on Japan or its own military.

“They have the capacity and the capability in international waters and international airspace anywhere on the globe. That’s the important point,” Thomas told reporters earlier this week.

“The decisions that are pending with regard to collective self-defence will clearly allow the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces to interact with, frankly, a lot of international partners, not just the US Seventh Fleet, in a more flexible fashion.”

A PLACE IN THE SUN

China’s air force recently held its first exercise in western Pacific Ocean, reportedly conducting drills between Taiwan and the Philippines. Last year, it also deployed its first aircraft carrier on manoeuvres in the East and South China Seas.

According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, Japanese fighters are also on track to set a new high for emergency scrambles against airspace incursions, increasingly by Chinese aircraft.

Russia’s being belligerent again, too.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wary of the expansion of the Chinese military, has been a major advocate of loosening post-war restrictions on Japan’s military.

WAKE-UP CALL

Tokyo and Washington both want Japan to be able to send its troops farther from its shores with fewer restrictions and join in a wider range of activities, from humanitarian operations to exercises in more locations and with a broader range of partners.

“There are areas that we can’t now do in a seamless way (with the allied ships), so we hope that these areas will be improved in the process of formulating the guidelines,” Vice Adm. Eiichi Funada, commander of the Japanese fleet, said alongside Thomas at the news conference on the deck of the Blue Ridge.

He said that Japan has been very concerned with the expansion of the Chinese military in recent years.

“Their recent exercises were also a matter of attention for us. We are not sure what the exact significance of the exercises was, but as part of the expansion of the Chinese military, it is something that we must watch with caution and continue to collect intelligence on.”

Thomas was more cautious.

“The fact that the PLAN — the Chinese navy — and the Chinese air force continue to expand operations in international waters and international airspace is a natural evolution for them,” he said. “The Chinese navy and more and more the Chinese air force operate globally as do the Japanese as does the United States, as do many international navies with those kinds of capabilities.”

How to put across technical and tactical issues to the public? I'm risking a hypothetical... http://t.co/Y9weGwagPG pic.twitter.com/KPmRP4JJBL — Jamie Seidel (@JamieSeidel) March 9, 2015