What if ROK went to war w/ Japan over islands?

[GeraldDuval]

reading this article got me thinking: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050309/ap/d88na0o01.html

Lets say ROK and Japane went to war. Who would come out on top? ROK has some hardcore troops and japan is...well...japan. I'm talking if this was in a political vacume and noone else was involved. The world just sat back and let the two duke it out.

lemme know what you think.

[PsihoKekec]

Japan has stronger navy and anyway ROK navy is mostly tied down guarding its coastal waters against DRK submarines and patrol boats. Also F-5E is no match for F-15J. But I doubt they would be so foolish to do this since it would most certainly play into hands of China.
Grece and Turkey also have disagrements considering Cyprus and several egeian islands, but have refreind from war in last thirty years.

[hughdotoh]

Japan, more likely.

Stronger Navy, better Air Force, and a larger industrial base.

Even assuming that Korea had the better infantry, they'll have to be moved to the battle. The Japanese Air Force would knock them out in their transports.
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[TheBelgian]

Depends on what the ojective of this war is. If its just capturing the islands then i feel there is no doubt that Japan would win. Being an island, they have pretty well evolved amphibious capabilities, with a strong navy and airforce. The South Korean military is mostly geared to stopping a possible North Korean invasion, so they have more emphasis on land forces and defenses, and less emphasis on amphibious invasions and excurcionary forces. But then again, i dont know enough about either militaries to really bak this stuff up.

[Gyles84]

Well, Japan has an excellant Navy, second only to the USN in the Pacific. Their AF has Eagles but they arn't as advanced/upgraded as the US F-15's. On land the ROK would almost certainly win. It's huge and has first rate equipment. Overall, there would be a draw as neither could knock out the other.

The FAS website has tons of info.

[Hawaii_Light]

"Depends on what the ojective of this war is. If its just capturing the islands then i feel there is no doubt that Japan would win. Being an island, they have pretty well evolved amphibious capabilities, with a strong navy and airforce"

I have mentioned that i live right next to a JMSDF, JGSDF, also theres an amphibous training base about 5k away which i have visited by boat and was fairly impressed by they're modern fleet of training hoover crafts and what not.

If there was a war between the ROK and Japan i can garenty that the world would be involved, especially the United States (some JSDF bases are combined with US bases) therefor the war would set the United States against both of its greatest allies in Asia.

I hope Japan and the ROK realize that they have to put there problems aside and focus on bigger problems at hand, DPRK.