It looks like Obama just got a rude welcome from Shinzo Abe, the Japan Prime Minister on his apology tour. The Japanese Prime Minister says he has NO PLANS to visit Pearl Harbor to reciprocate what Obama is doing in Hiroshima:
AP – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh ah-bay) says he doesn’t have specific plans to visit Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor to reciprocate for President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Hiroshima.
Abe says he marked last year’s 70th anniversary of the end of World War II by visiting the United States.
Abe says that trip included a speech to a joint meeting of Congress and a visit to the World War II Memorial in Washington, where he laid a wreath.
But not only that, he also lectures Obama about the murder of a Japanese woman by a former US Marine, as if Obama is responsible:
ABC NEWS – In a news conference where he was harshly lectured by the prime minister of Japan, President Obama extended his “sincerest condolences and deepest regrets” for what he termed a “tragedy” in Okinawa, after a former U.S. Marine is suspected in the death of a young Japanese woman.
“The U.S. will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation to ensure that justice is done under the Japanese justice system,” Obama pledged.
Japanese police say Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old former U.S. Marine, confessed to stabbing and strangling a 20-year-old office worker on the island of Okinawa.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emerged from the bilateral meeting with Obama, announcing that he raised a formal protest over the death he says shocked not only Okinawa, but the people of the entire Japan.
“I firmly launched a protest as the Japanese prime minister in regards to the most recent case in Okinawa,” Abe said right off the top of his statement. “The entire time for the small group discussion was spent on the specific case in Okinawa, and I feel profound resentment for this self-centered and despicable crime.”
The public airing of grievances sets a tense tone for the rest of the trip that culminates in an historic “non-apology” presidential visit to Hiroshima on Friday.
Abe said the entire time for the leaders’ discussion was spent on the murder case and urged Obama to “take effective and thorough means” to prevent a re-occurence.
Sounds like there’s a lot of hostility being aimed at Obama here. But I’m not really surprised, as Obama conveys weakness on behalf of America and this is just happens when you do that.