I’m too lazy to really do any research about this guy (personal friend of Bush, owned the Rangers with him, on the board at JP Morgan) or who came before him, why he’s the ambassador, what happened to Baker (“In March 2005, he joined Citigroup as a advisor to senior management on international matters.”—Wiki) or anything really. I’ll just let you guys take a look at some clips from his Narita Airport speech. It’s full of meaningless platitudes, but I think there were some interesting bits:

Arigato gozaimasu. Kon nichi-wa.

Can’t imagine how badly he mangled that.

Last week shortly after I was sworn in, the President called to emphasize again how much our relationship with Japan meant to him and to the peace of the world. He asked me to convey to you, the people of Japan and to Prime Minister Koizumi his deep appreciation for your friendship and understanding. The President believes that there is much good that we can do together in the world.

Translation: If you had any doubts about how America feels about you beefing up your defense capabilities, read my lips: keep up the good work!

There is no doubt that we live in dangerous, difficult times but there is also no doubt that these can be times of great opportunity. Sixty years ago, World War II was ending and the world realized that a new era was beginning. In my judgment, September 11th was the last day of that old era and the first day of something new.

Opportunities for Japan? Read further:

(T)he United States and Japan stand together as two great democracies that have embraced the same values – not American values – but universal values; values that can make a difference in people’s lives and the lives of their communities.

Our languages and our cultures are very different but our friendship is very real. We face the dangers of this changing world together because we know that freedom gives us strength not weakness.

I said earlier that this was the beginning of a new era. Right now it has no name. Some may think it will be called the age of terrorism. Hopefully, the work we do together as free men and women, as Americans and Japanese will cause it to be known as the age of democracy and freedom.

May we all do our best.

So it looks like he’s enlisting Japan as a partner in the democratization of the world that Bush has been on about lately. He’s using the same language as the president that reframes the War on Terror as the Crusade for Democracy—of which Iraq was supposedly a part.

Does anyone else think that this might not sit well with China? I mean, he’s including Japan as a partner in a doctrine that calls for the morally-inspired removal of oppressive regimes all over the world. Of course, at this stage Japan is supposed to be just a logistical/medical/engineering partner, but will this go further?

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 9th, 2005 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Current Events, Japan, Ranting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.