JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --
Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., Pacific Air Forces commander, hosted Gen. Yoshinari Marumo, Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF or Koku Jieitai) chief of staff, here Dec. 4 to discuss ways to further strengthen the alliance between the two air forces.
“We’re excited to host General Marumo and continue our discussions from my visit to Japan in August,” Brown said. “For more than 60 years, the U.S.-Japan Alliance has been the cornerstone of stability and security in northeast Asia and we look forward to continuing to make it stronger as part of our shared commitment to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
As part of his visit, Marumo had office calls with Adm. Phil Davidson, Indo-Pacific Command commander, as well as Brown, and participated in a roundtable meeting with PACAF directors, including a briefing on the PACAF strategy.
“A key part of our strategy focuses on strengthening our network of allies and partners,” Brown said. “As we build on these relationships, we build our readiness and we build our interoperability. Not only does it pay dividends in contingencies, but it has also paid dividends in humanitarian assistance and disaster response.”
Recent examples of this include the shared participation of PACAF Airmen and Koku-Jieitai who were among the many nations providing aid and response to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, as well as participation in Operation Christmas Drop, the longest running humanitarian mission taking place in Guam this month.
“Strong bonds and visits like this between top leaders symbolize the fact that PACAF and the Koku-Jieitai are ready to tackle together the challenges we face. I am sure this visit will contribute to bolstering the bond of the ‘alliance of hope,’” Marumo said.
In addition to Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Response efforts, discussions throughout the visit focused on opportunities to cooperate further in areas of F-35 and Air Operations Center integration, ballistic missile defense, Continuous Bomber Presence missions, space operations and information sharing.
According to Marumo, this year is said to be the 150th anniversary since the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii.
“The legacy still keeps on by contemporary efforts of Japanese-related people to bridge Hawaii and Japan,” said Marumo. “I am committed to strengthen the tie between the US and Japan.”