An anxious Asia arms for a war it hopes to prevent

A Japanese mechanic checks the jets between flights at the Tinian airport, on Feb 17, 2023. (Photo: The New York Times)

TINIAN, Northern Mariana Islands: The tiny island of Tinian was the launch point for U.S. planes carrying atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now a new runway is being carved from the jungle, just south of World War II ruins.

And on a blustery February morning, a few hundred yards away at Tinian’s civilian airport, American airmen refuelled Japanese fighter jets during a military exercise using more airstrips, islands and Japanese planes than the two enemies-turned-allies have ever mustered for drills in the North Pacific.