Japanese and Taiwanese Ships Use Water Cannon on Each Other

Taiwanese and Japaneses boats clashed Tuesday over the Senkaku islands.

Over the past months the mostly verbal battle over the islands has increased between China and Japan, though at times Chinese vessels have crossed into Japanese waters.

But now Taiwan has decided to press their own claims, by sending twelve patrol boats to escort forty fishing boats, into the waters off the islands.

Japan responded by sending it's coast guard vessels forth to warn the Taiwanese away. The warnings went ignored, as well as threats, and the Japanese vessels made the decision to shoot water cannons at the fishing boats.

The Taiwanese patrol boats responded by firing their own water cannons, at the Japanese coast guard vessels, but then quickly retreated, taking the fishing boats with them, as they realized their mistake. Firing, even a water cannon, on a government vessel could easily be taken as an act of war.

Ten Chinese vessels, that were near the confrontation, maintained their distance from it, and stayed out of Japanese waters.

Japanese diplomats are in negotiations with both China and Taiwan over the islands. They had been owned privately, by two Japanese families, for centuries. But China and Taiwan claim that they each own the islands due to past history, from before that time.

Protests over Japan's protecting the islands from Chinese landings, occurred across China. In an attempt to end the controversy, Japan purchased the islands earlier in September. Since then war has even been threatened over the islands, but the countries seem to be doing all they can to avoid that.