Newsletter No. 501
News-Analysis
January 28, 2007

 

BUSH STATE DEPARTMENT TO TOKYO -- CRITICISM OF OUR IRAQ POLICY IS VERBOTEN!

Kyodo News is reporting that James Zumwalt, director of the Office of Japanese Affairs at the State Department, has protested to the Japanese Embassy in Washington about Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma’s recent criticism of US policy in Iraq. According to the report, Zumwalt said that “the United States takes the remarks seriously as they came shortly after Bush's State of the Union speech… He also said the remarks could have a negative impact on the bilateral alliance.” The report went on to state that, “Zumwalt also said it may be difficult to arrange the schedule for the next Japan-U.S. ministerial security talks involving the foreign affairs and defense chiefs of the two countries if there are any more remarks critical of Bush.”

Let’s briefly revisit Kyuma’s terrible comment on the 24th: He said that President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq “based on an assumption that weapons of mass destruction existed was a mistake.”

So let’s get this straight: Fumio Kyuma publicly says something that most members of the current US Congress, and perhaps most of the American public, would privately agree is true, but the fact that he dared to state his opinion openly is regarded as something that “could have a negative impact on the bilateral alliance,” and is grounds to take quiet sanctions against Japan in the realms of defense and diplomatic talks.

I had no idea that the US-Japan alliance was so fragile!

Nothing that Fumio Kyuma has said is even half as harsh as what senators like Republican Chuck Hagel are now saying quite openly. The US Congress itself passed a symbolic resolution against Bush’s policy just hours after the State of the Union Address. The majority of the American people themselves have lost faith in the Bush Administration’s Iraq policies.

And yet, this mild criticism by Fumio Kyuma is still considered forbidden? Does Washington regard the Japanese as allies or servants? I’m not sure if James Zumwalt (or whoever gave him his orders) really understands that distinction.

It is perfectly healthy and appropriate for there to be differences of opinion between friends and allies. Considering how obviously counterproductive the Iraq invasion has been (even from the narrow point of view of American national interests), it is remarkable how thin-skinned and petty the Bush Administration still can be about all this.

All that said, it seems quite possible that the real purpose of Zumwalt’s intervention is to try to get Kyuma dismissed from his position as defense minister. I wouldn’t discount the possibility that they might succeed. The slave-mentality in Tokyo may just be strong enough that they may believe that they have “no choice” but to sacrifice Kyuma for the health of the alliance. I have yet to see a single defense of Kyuma in the Japanese press, but the Asahi Shinbun did make the following report:

“Government officials are increasingly concerned that repeated criticism against the U.S.-led Iraq war by Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma could hurt Japan's relations with its close ally. As U.S. President George W. Bush is increasingly facing criticism at home and abroad over his Iraq policy, Japan ‘should extend support as an ally, especially at a juncture like this,’ said a senior official of the Cabinet Secretariat.”

It may generally be true that “a friend in need is a friend indeed” -- but that doesn’t apply when your friend is engaging in self-destructive behavior and you have simply become one of his enablers. If your friend is an alcoholic or a drug user, the role of a good friend is not to cheerfully supply him with more booze and pills. Rather, it is better to slap him in the face and tell him to get his act together before it is too late.

There is something about Japanese political culture that I just cannot understand, and probably never will. Why is it so difficult to look into the near future and see that the current trajectory will lead to a miserable disaster? Why is it so impossible to make small adjustments now to avoid a much larger fiasco later? Why is it that Japanese leaders cannot steer the ship they are riding once they get up a head of steam going in one direction? Why is so unthinkable that people of insight should step outside the prevailing wisdom and publicly point out the fallacies of the official thinking?

More than anything else, this is why Japan remains a dangerous country in international affairs.