] We are divided and Japan considers itself above the rest
] of us. I could almost say they have a Western perspective
] to the rest of us; lording it over the savages.

Since late 19th century, modern Japan has historic, solid reasons to be proud.
Maybe because unlike China, Japan doesn’t have the “burden” of 3,000+ years of civilisation and imperial dynasties, as China is practically the only continuous, ancient civilisation to survive to today.

In Japan, after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, when the rulership of Japan returned from the Shougun of the Tokugawa clan to the Emperor Meiji after years of in-fighting amongst the samurai who supported the Shougun and those who supported the Emperor, the Japanese government actively sent officials and scholars to Europe, Russian Empire, and USA to study, import, and realise Western institutions and technologies in Japan, to modernise and restructure Japan.
(The most famous and romanticised group in the pro-Shougun faction was the Shinsengumi, who were based in Edo (Toukyou) and Kyouto.)

For example, Japan adopted (IIRC) the Italian Diet model for the Japanese government, and the Prussian general staff model for the Japanese military.
When (IIRC) in a street in Edo, the guards of some Japanese nobles attacked some Brits because the Brits didn’t dismount or lower themselves like the Japanese civilians beside them, and the RN bombarded Kagoshima or Nagasaki (I forgot which) in Kyuushuu as retaliation, the nobles in Kyuushuu hired the RN as military advisors to train their navy.
OTOH, although Japan had admired China for centuries, Japan learnt that by then, Qing Dyansty China had become corrupt, lazy, meek, and bullied by Europe and USA.
(Many Chinese also left China to re-explore the world, but when they returned to China, they were neglected by the officials, nobles, and eunuchs in Bei Jing.)

In 1878 (Meiji 10), some samurai who couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt to the “new world order” in Japan, and who were formally “led” by Saigou Takamori of Kagoshima, Kyuushuu, initiated the Southwest War, as symbolised in the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai. But the rebels eventually ran out of ammunitions, and were defeated by the new IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) enforced by the auxiliary police, after the rebels’ failed siege of Kumamoto, Kyuushuu.
(Saigou Takamori, one of the few Japanese whom I respect, was a tragedy. He was one of the heroes of the Meiji Restoration, and commander in chief of the Japanese military. But (IIRC) after Japanese diplomats were rejected by the Korean court, and some Japanese officials recommended Japan to mobilise and punish Korea for the dishonour, Saigou disagreed, resigned, and went home to Kagoshima.)

Japan’s confidence certainly increased further when in the middle 1900s (first decade of 20th century), the new IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy), commanded by Admiral Tougou Heihachirou on the battleship Mikasa, defeated the Pacific Fleet AND the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Empire.
(The Mikasa is preserved in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. I visited her in 2005 August.)

In the late 1980s, I read the official English translation of the book “Japan can say no” by Ishihara Shintarou.
(The original Japanese version was co-written by Morita Akio, the late co-founder and chairman of Sony, another of the few Japanese whom I respect, and whose autobiography I also read. Afraid that the official English translation of the book would collaterally damage Sony, he withdrew his name as co-author from the the official English translation.)

One of the main themes of the book was: with its economic and technologic might, Japan should “spinefully” stand up and become an equal partner with the USA.
In the original Japanese version, what alarmed the US DOD was the few pages about the FS-X (F-2), where the author(s) suggested the Japanese aerospace industry, with its T-2/F-1 jet fighter experience, could’ve domestically developed and produced the FS-X.
Part of the US aerospace and defense industries also worried that, if the USA co-developed and co-produced (not just co-developed) the FS-X with Japan, Japan would learn military, manufacturing, and system integration technologies that would be applied to Japanese aerospace and civilian industries.
(USA was daemonising Japan as USA’s economic enemy in the 1980s (cf the movie Gung Ho and the novel Rising Sun), even as USA is daemonising China as USA’s economic enemy in the 2000s.)

BTW, I’m a Japan b_sher, but obviously I’ve done my homework on the OPFOR (opposing force). 8)

http://www.sjac.or.jp/kaihou/200605/060505.pdf

“耐故障飛行制御システムの基盤技術開発”

“Base technical development of a failure-proof flight regulating system”

Thanks much, dude.

(Maybe you chaps already knew these F3.0 tricks.)

Some days ago, the first time I saw on TV, the news about the collision of a Greek AF F-16 and a Turkish AF F-16, my first impression was: it reminded me of when I was playing F3.0:OFT.

In OFT, in the Hokkaidou theatre of ops, to (attempt to) avoid a full-scale conventional war between Japan and Russia, the player shouldn’t fire at will.
Unless the briefing before a mission, or until the AWACS during a mission, authorised the player to destroy only hostile air units, or only hostile ground units, or only hostile surface units.
If the player, or any friendly AI pilot, violated the ROE, he was deleted from the squadron roster (foxtrot uniform).

But chaotic players like me found ways to destroy Russian units, such as blowing up Russian ground and surface units, and shooting down Russian air units… without violating the ROE.

The trick was: the game ROE governed only guided weapons, such as AAMs. Kills by dumb bombs and the 20 mike-mike Vulcan didn’t violate the ROE!
(I was… inspired when some whiskey delta AI friendlies dumped their expensive ordnance, after an enemy SAM radar locked-on them, and the ordnance were still lethal when they hit the ground.)

Thus, during an air-to-air mission, I would command the friendly wingy (wingman) to spread far out, but not command him to engage… because some idiot wingies forgot the ROE, launched their AAMs anyway, and violated the ROE.

After I shot down a bandit with the Vulcan, and if the bandit’s wingy launched an AAM at me or my wingy, then the AWACS would probably authorise us to destroy only hostile air units.

Similarly, during a boring CAP or milk-run mission, I would assign another flight of friendlies to accomplish the mission objectives, while my flight, carrying iron bombs (Mk 83 1,000-pounders were my favourite), went to the closest Russian island, and destroyed the hostile SAM launchers and radar, or denied the hostile runways with Durandals.

The Hokkaidou theatre had some hidden or strange items, such as the Gojira chasing a civilian ship, or the random hostile (French) Mirage F1s.

Also, the radio chatter (“Good kill, good kill!”) used in the F3.0 opening movies is compiled from the 4 January 1989 dogfight in the Gulf of Sidra, Libya, where two USN F-14s shot down two Libyan AF MiG-23s.

As proof,
ttp://http://www.atwar.net/content.php?article.138
ttp://http://www.buddyboys.net/media.shtml
had an audio file and/or a transcript of the radio chatter, but these URLs are now dead links.

Drag-On Quest

Reportedly the cockpit parts of a Su-34 model.
Will someone vis-ident the kitchen and toilet for us?

] Very interesting, can anyone translate the text?

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

] tarou-o
] Location: Yokohama,Japan

You’re a real Hamakko?

F-3

http://www.jda-trdi.go.jp/topics.html

“High movement flight regulating system” at JDA-TRDI.