Japan releases video of sea chase with Chinese activists
- 12 years ago
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: Japan's Coast Guard on Monday released video showing a chase near a group of islands at the center of a territorial dispute with China.
The uninhabited islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China have long been a source of friction between Tokyo and Beijing and competing territorial claims to the islets and surrounding fishing areas and potentially rich gas deposits.
Tensions over the islands flared in mid-August, when the Japanese coast guard detained Chinese activists who sailed from Hong Kong and landed on the island.
The landing by the Chinese activists on the disputed island and their detention by Japan's coast guard on August 15th, the anniversary of the date Japanese Emperor Hirohito admitted Japan's defeat at the end of World War II, sparked outrage.
Tokyo sent the group back home without charging them to calm things down, but a landing of Japanese nationalists just days later led to another flare-up.
The video released by the Japanese Coast Guard, originally hours long but edited down to 30 minutes, shows Japanese vessels surrounding the activists' boat and trying to force it to change its course by blocking its path and spraying it with water.
However, activists aboard the Chinese ship succeed in passing the Japanese coast guard and landing on an island.
After the landing, some of the activists were arrested on the island and others were arrested by Japan's Coast Guard aboard the vessel.
All 14 were deported days later.
STORY: Japan's Coast Guard on Monday released video showing a chase near a group of islands at the center of a territorial dispute with China.
The uninhabited islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China have long been a source of friction between Tokyo and Beijing and competing territorial claims to the islets and surrounding fishing areas and potentially rich gas deposits.
Tensions over the islands flared in mid-August, when the Japanese coast guard detained Chinese activists who sailed from Hong Kong and landed on the island.
The landing by the Chinese activists on the disputed island and their detention by Japan's coast guard on August 15th, the anniversary of the date Japanese Emperor Hirohito admitted Japan's defeat at the end of World War II, sparked outrage.
Tokyo sent the group back home without charging them to calm things down, but a landing of Japanese nationalists just days later led to another flare-up.
The video released by the Japanese Coast Guard, originally hours long but edited down to 30 minutes, shows Japanese vessels surrounding the activists' boat and trying to force it to change its course by blocking its path and spraying it with water.
However, activists aboard the Chinese ship succeed in passing the Japanese coast guard and landing on an island.
After the landing, some of the activists were arrested on the island and others were arrested by Japan's Coast Guard aboard the vessel.
All 14 were deported days later.