Posted on 11/22/2009 12:31:51 AM PST by American Dream 246
A magazine in Tokyo is reporting that President Obama's summit with Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama was a frosty disaster, precipitated by incompetence on both sides and an entirely avoidable diplomatic slight to the Japanese side by Obama. The visit was abruptly re-scheduled, seriously inconveniencing the Emperor of Japan, as well as the Prime Minister, whose intricate schedules require meticulous planning and coordination.
Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun cites an unnamed insider at the Foreign Ministry, who delivers a devastating account of not merely a failure to agree, but figurative slaps in the face of the rude president, delivered in retaliation. If true, President Obama has demonstrated high-handed arrogance once again, and antagonized a key ally, weakening a relationship of critical security and economic importance to the United States.
"To tell you the truth, it had to have been the worst US-Japan Summit Meeting in history," a source of ours at the Foreign Ministry revealed to us.
A summary translation of the Japanese-only publication appears on Free Republic, posted by someone with the screen name American in Tokyo. Shukan Bunshun is one of the most prominent magazines in Japan. Although Japanese weeklies tend to be gossipy and not always completely reliable, the corporate parent of Bunshun (as it is familiarly known), Bungeishunju, is a very prestigious publishing company with a track record of exposing serious political scandal. It awards Japan's most important literary honor, the Akutagawa Prize.
It may well be that the magazine's source had some scores to settle within the ministry, for the Japanese side is also criticized for not having its act together. But the late schedule change, forcing the Japanese side to adjust for Obama's convenience, is the sort of slight that tends to anger the Japanese. Here is the meat of Obama's bungle, as reported in the weekly:
The plan was for Obama to arrive in Japan on the November 12th, have his summit meeting with Hatoyama on the 13th, and thereby jet out of Japan the following day, the 14th to Singapore for the APEC Summit meeting. The U.S. journalist also revealed that the Obama administration made the sudden request to change this schedule for Obama to the 13th (arrival in Japan), on November 7th. Said the same U.S. journalist source, "their excuse for the delay was the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas on the U.S. Army base on November 5th. But the fact of the matter is, the memorial service was on the November 10th and only took a day trip for Obama whereupon he returned immediately to Washington, D.C. After that, he had the National Security Council meeting on policy in Afghanistan on November 11th. However, he could have departed Washington, D.C. right after that and could have still landed in Japan as everyone agreed and planned on, for the 12th."
--Additional screw-ups that created a possible conflict with the Emperor's schedule and the entire Cabinet celebrating his 20 years on the throne, can be traced to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. A ruling Democratic Party of Japan spokesperson said "at any rate, with four days in China for Obama, the fact is China is the big thing for them."
--Obama was made to wait five minutes in a car at the entrance way to the Prime Minister's Official Residence, which as seen as not only a diplomatic discourtesy, but a breach of security procedures, and furthermore it would be recalled the Prime Minister and his wife had kept Obama waiting for a long time in Pittsburg at the G-20 dinner as well, says foreign affairs specialist Oyama.
--It may have been felt as a diplomatic slight to get back at the Americans because of the very sudden, troublesome last minute schedule change.
The American media aren't reporting the story, and so far Bunshun is the only Japanese source reporting it, so far as I know.
Either President Obama wants to anger America's traditional allies, as he is doing with the British, or he is simply a self-involved fool who can't imagine others aren't thrilled with everything he does. Considering his botched bow, I am going with the second hypothesis, for the moment. The bow made him appear to be a sophomoric bumpkin.
what a zero.
But Obama knows how to bow really good.
SNAFU
Hey, American in Tokyo, you are famous!
Ping.
Just goes to show that no matter how much you can polish a ball of dung, no matter how perfectly round and shiny it becomes there is always the undeniable aspect of truth about it.
Its still dung.
...FUBAR by a self-involved fool...
It’s a long way from backwoods’ South Carolina. Thanks. Shucks.
Ping!
You’re a celebrity!
Have you forwarded the translation to Drudge? The talk shows? Bloggers?
High Fives to you this morning, Oh Famous One...... and Sunday morn greetings from the Palmetto State (Florence to be exact, just passin thru) mornin joe in a motel, and a post on FR, time to get back out on the Mickey Mouse Freeway...kudoes AIT...
Another Obama *success* story.
-he is after all, trying to tear down this country.
making damn good progress too!
good job,
would you mind linking me to that?
Be my guest. There is no onlne link to the Japanese article of 11/26 issue of "Shukan Bunshun", because it is not online, but is in hard copy on the news racks in Japan right now. You can link either to the this original FR thread from yesterday or you can link to the Bungeishunju Publishing House website which puts out "Shukan Bunshun" magazine.
Kindly please link to the magazine if you would like (it is in Japanese) but in providing the summary English translation of what the entire article was comprised of, on your blog, please state something maybe like ("scoop on the Japanese article, as well as summarizing translation, was done by a poster on the popular conservative website Free Republic.com, known as "AmericanInTokyo").
Have at it.
Just in time for the Sunday Talk shows where the Administration will come on and try to spin that this junket out in Asia was somehow a success, when all the reports we are getting from local media here in Asia as well as individual reports from Freepers in Singapore, Japan, China and Korea, show quite a contrary picture.
Obama bows, several times a day, in order to gaze at his own navel.
Congrats on the mention, AmericanInTokyo.
Thanks for being our eyes and ears on the inside of Asia.
Keep up the good work.
Good morning. Thanks for the good words. There is more stuff out there. Some of it much better than this one found yesterday. When we get it, it is going to get rocketed beyond the Conservative blogosphere and into international orbit! ;-)
Thanks. As you know I dig into stuff all over the world, not just Asia (Honduras, Hasan shooting, etc. etc.), but yes, Asia is indeed my backyard.
Obammie the Commie’s handlers know exactly what they are doing.
They are isolating America by trashing our most important allies.
After their plan of destroying the US economy is fulfilled, we will be so isolated and so desperate, Americans will demand we sign on to any global plan.
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