There are three answers to that, AIT (from me, a former expat):
1) Americans (the grass roots) don't understand why you would want to work overseas in the first place. There is little to no understanding of the role 38,000 Americans play in Japan. As you know, only expats understand why someone might want to be an expat.
2) Even if they wanted to care, America's news reporting of foreign events is dismal, inadequate, agenda-driven, and very frequently flat-out wrong (as I recall shaking my head in bafflement at the hysterical, left-wing American news reporting which bore absolutely no factual resemblance to the country where I was once sleeping, eating, and working).
3) At the individual level, U.S. embassy personnel can be real saints and great people, even if a bit constrained by their professional roles. But at the institutional level the State Dept. views expats as U.S. citizens who should either be left alone, warned, or evacuated (those are the three options). There's not much room for nuance in the way State handles its risk assessments, and so - when they hear of them - the American people get a very gross and imprecise understanding of what is actually happening in other countries.
BTW, I have a friend in Indo right now, managing the project which I turned down 2 1/2 years ago. I had to weigh the risk of having my wife in Jakarta, and didn't like the odds. He on the other hand has his wife and kids safely tucked-away in Europe, which works for him.