The situation in Okinawa continues to worsen. Staff Sergeant Tyrone Hadnott, the Marine accused of raping a 14-year-old Okinawan girl, is now in Japanese custody. Japanese officials at all levels of government have expressed their outrage at the US.On Wednesday morning, Onodera Itsunori, parliamentary vice foreign minister, arrived in Okinawa to meet with US military …
Tag: Bush administration
Learning to be self-reliant?
If I could draw, I would have drawn something exactly like this cartoon in today's Yomiuri:The caption on this cartoon reads, "Troubles at home, worries in America," Abe's dual American "worries" being the looming comfort women resolution and Christopher Hill's nuclear bargaining.It didn't need to be this way, did it? As I wrote last week, …
Brave new alliance?
Korea's Chosun Ilbo reports that the US government — both Congress and the White House — are not pleased by the ad published in the Washington Post signed by Japanese legislators that lays out "the facts" of the comfort women issue (previously discussed here). While the Chosun Ilbo relies on an unnamed source in Washington …
Benign neglect for the alliance?
Upon further reflection, I wonder if the Asia team that the Bush administration has assembled — which I previously discussed here — for its final years in office might be a good thing for the US-Japan alliance.For too long, the alliance has been a cozy love fest. Even in rough patches, the alliance has been …
The Bush administration has left the building (in Asia, anyway)
South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo reports that the Asia team for the denouement of the Bush administration is complete...Daniel Drezner could not have been more right when he said that the Bush administration is looking for "September call-ups" for its foreign policy team.Look at the roster provided by Dong-A. While some, including Dr. Paul Heer and …
Continue reading The Bush administration has left the building (in Asia, anyway)
Who to believe?
Earlier this week I noted that Condi Rice had told Japan that the resolution of the abductions issue was no longer an obstacle to the removal of North Korea from the US State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.Indicating just how serious this issue is to Tokyo, Yomiuri (article not online) reported yesterday that …
Is the Bush administration thinking about the China relationship?
With the Bush administration's recent move to press a suit against Chinese violations of intellectual property in the WTO sparking fears of a full-blown Sino-American trade war, I must ask the same questionI asked when the US Commerce Department announced tariffs on Chinese glossy paper: is this administration pursuing a coherent strategy in Asia, or …
Continue reading Is the Bush administration thinking about the China relationship?
Feeling the chill
The chill to which I'm referring, of course, is the chill that has set in between Tokyo and Washington.Without looking particularly hard, I found two very clear signs of a growing appreciation among Japanese opinion makers that the US-Japan alliance is experiencing a bit of turbulence.On the front page of today's Yomiuri, in an article …
Finally!
It seems that someone in Washington is finally calling attention to the US government's dangerous fixation on the Middle East -- as freelance writer and onetime NYT correspondent Richard Halloran writes at RealClearPolitics, the Congressional Research Service has produced a report (available for downloaded here) warning that insufficient attention is being paid to the Asia-Pacific …
Tobias S. Harris 