America recreates a warfighting command in Japan

KADENA AIR BASE in Japan (pictured), America’s largest in the Pacific, is roughly 650km from the coast of China as the missile flies. Jets roar constantly over children’s playgrounds on their way to and from patrols. But American forces there have, in effect, been on a peacetime footing since the end of the Vietnam war. That changed on July 28th, when Lloyd Austin, America’s defence secretary, announced the creation of a new warfighting command to oversee all American forces in Japan.