“I felt a surge of emotion when I realized that this furniture had watched over the progress of Japan-U.S. relations for over 150 years,” Abe said.
Uh, Shinzō, what was it that you said you felt?
Shall I take you and Aki to IKEA on your next visit?
To see how the sleepy one arrived at such an epiphany, check out the original article.
1 comment:
Sadly, the quote was not taken out of context. It is what it is. I would advise you to see the primary source, the White House press conference transcript, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070427-6.html
Here, the great emotion provoked by the furniture contasts to Abe's
torturous "apology" to the Comfort Women further down in the transcript, "I do have deep-hearted sympathies that my people had to serve as comfort women, were placed in extreme hardships, and had to suffer that sacrifice; and that I, as Prime Minister of Japan, expressed my apologizes, and also expressed my apologizes for the fact that they were placed in that sort of circumstance."
Athough, President Bush "accepted" Abe's apology, no one in Washington was sure why. No one was also sure who "my people" were in the quote above.
In a recent AJISS-Commentary, a Mr Okamoto says that the Summit was a success. This appears to be the official line all around. In Washington, however, the view is that neither man will be in office long and that making deals with either is a waste of time. Unofficially, the talk is that the Summit was a nonevent.
Interestingly, representatives of Japan have stepped up their efforts to link the stability of the alliance with stopping any criticism of Japan whether it be on history or intelligence or currency.
Lyons Wakeman
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