Tracer bullets ricochet off their targets as Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force tanks fire their machine guns during a night session of an annual training exercise at Higashifuji training field near Mount Fuji in Gotemba, west of Tokyo, August 19, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese battle tanks, helicopters and elite troops stormed the foothills of Mount Fuji Tuesday in a first-of-its-kind display of the tactics and equipment the nation's military could use to defend or retake islands in and around the East China Sea.
The manoeuvres involving some 60 Japanese military aircraft, including Apache attack helicopters, marked the first time Japan's Self-Defence Forces (SDF) have simulated a remote island battle as part of an annual live-fire exercise that has become part training drill and part patriotic spectacle.
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