Oita Godo Newspaper (morning edition on February 10, 2008)
On February 9, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strictly protested against Russian embassy in Japan concerning the report that a Russian bomber plane had invaded Japanese territorial airspace above Tokyo and the southern area of Izu archipelago in the morning of the same day.
According to the information from Japan’s Ministry of Defense, the last time Russian military plane invaded Japanese air territory above Izu archipelago and neighboring area was September, 1975, in the Soviet era. Since then, it is counted as long as 313 years until now. About areas near Hokkaido and Rebun Island, Russia’s transportation plane invaded those air territories in January, 2005
The mentioned bomber plane was coded “Tu95” which had long flying range distance. It flied from over the sea of Okhotsk, turned to the South over the Pacific, flied around in a half circle above the area nearby Ogasawara archipelago. Then when the time had passed 7:30 AM of February 9th, it invaded the area of “Soufu Rock” within the southern part of Izu archipelago as long as 3 minutes by flying horizontally from the West to the East. After that, it headed to the North above the Pacific Ocean, crossed the sea of Okhotsk, and returned to Russia.
Comment: As for me, this is doubtful for what is Russia’s purpose. Even though it may come to apologize and say that it did not intend to invade, still why did they use the bomber plane to fly and survey above the oceanic areas as mentioned? I think it does not make sense, hence it perhaps has some hidden objectives. In order to ensure what really happened, we ought to keep an eye on any consequent news.
PUNTHUCHAT Siripun
Thailand
APS2, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
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