Just
to wrap up a thread that I’d opened here, it looks like President Obama will
stay only one night in Tokyo but the two sides will work together to cram the
trappings of a full state visit—audience with the emperor and a state banquet
hosted by the prime minister—into the time available. That means that there
will be no side trip to Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki, the scene of America’s crime
against humanity—or does the end justify the means?—which would be awkward,
except the Japanese side, including the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has always
been a good sport about it.
Foreign
Minister Fumio Kishida telegraphed some such an outcome during his Feb. 7 talks
with Secretary of State John Kerry when he stated: “And concerning President Obama’s upcoming visit to Japan, we are
inviting the President as state guest. But when the United States makes its
decision, the Japanese side will cooperate so that we will be able to make sure
that President Obama’s visit to Japan is a great success.” Which
is when I lost interest in this small matter except to note that a) in
diplomacy, there will usually be a way as long as you obey the law of physics,
and b) Japan does not get as worked up about these rivalry issues as much as South
Korea or even China does. That is beginning to change on history issues with
the Abe administration in charge. But not on matters like this.
The
video of the February 7 remarks—no questions from the
media—after the meeting between Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio
Kushida’s and US Secretary of State John Kerry got top billing on the State
Department website. (The transcript can be found here.)
Now
back to work.
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