I found the article that is causing the dust-up here in Japan: it was written by Al Kamen of the Washington Post.
In it, Kamen says:
By far the biggest loser of the extravaganza was the hapless and (in the opinion of some Obama administration officials) increasingly loopy Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. He reportedly requested but got no bilat [bilateral meeting with Obama]. The only consolation prize was that he got an “unofficial” meeting during Monday night’s working dinner. Maybe somewhere between the main course and dessert?
A rich man’s son, Hatoyama has impressed Obama administration officials with his unreliability on a major issue dividing Japan and the United States: the future of a Marine Corps air station in Okinawa. Hatoyama promised Obama twice that he’d solve the issue. According to a long-standing agreement with Japan, the Futenma air base is supposed to be moved to an isolated part of Okinawa. (It now sits in the middle of a city of more than 80,000.)
But Hatoyama’s party, the Democratic Party of Japan, said it wanted to reexamine the agreement and to propose a different plan. It is supposed to do that by May. So far, nothing has come in over the transom. Uh, Yukio, you’re supposed to be an ally, remember? Saved you countless billions with that expensive U.S. nuclear umbrella? Still buy Toyotas and such?
Meanwhile, who did give Hatoyama some love at the nuclear summit? Hu did. Yes, China’s president met privately with the Japanese prime minister on Monday.
Purportedly, Hatoyama had previously told Obama “trust me”, and the President reminded him of those words. (This means the President is holding him to those words, too. Not just “tell the foreigner anything” and the foreigner will just guffaw when you break promises.)
I wonder if Hatoyama’s meeting with Hu was to discuss Japan’s separate surrender terms to China in World War II, a/k/a the Second Sino-Japanese War. We are here as trucekeepers of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and to prevent the Third Sino from breaking out.
I am sure that the DPJ will get its act together, but certainly not with the program it’s been offering since September. It really needs to focus on domestic concerns, which were totally of Japan’s making, and off spinning side issues into something much bigger so as to excuse the lack of progress on the domestic side.
We are here as allies and not as scapegoats.
No matter what the sellouts among our people here lead you to believe.
Hoofin 