Defense of the Defense Minister
Last month, the US Vice-President visited Japan.
However, he did not meet, to surprise of many concerned, the Japan's Defense Minister who has occupied the position of chief of defense twice in this decade.
It aroused various arguments and suspicions among Japanese political communities and media, though no one has asked the Defense Minister to resign.
It is true that Japan's Defense Minister expressed, in various occasions since he took up the post again last September, plain-spoken opinions against US policies regarding US Marines bases in Okinawa and the War in Iraq.
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The incumbent Japan's Defense Minister, when he was first in the post in the era of the Bill Clinton's Administration, met with Ms. Madeleine Albright, then US Secretary of State, while she was actively working in the Far East.
In my view, though I am afraid of being very subjective, the relationships between the two were not good. I suspect that the Japan's Defense Minister could not well cope with the US Secretary, probably psychologically.
(However, it is interesting that our Minister looked like feeling easy, when he met current US Secretary Condoleezza Rice in Tokyo.)
It may be an underlying cause for his critical comments on the U.S. defense policies today, probably based on his personal experiences that have nothing to do with world strategies of the two allied countries, the U.S. and Japan.
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This is one example. Misunderstanding can happen anywhere. We need a principle that supersedes temporary judgment on emotion and behaviors.
Especially, when the U.S. engages in battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will be important to dispel any misapprehension that may happen mysteriously even between the U.S. and Japan.
One thing US citizens should know is that as so many Japanese politicians and top businessmen are very nice and unbelievably friendly to the US Government, sometimes Japanese voters and media support reasonable criticism against US policies which is candidly expressed by Japanese elites.
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It is well known that the former teacher of US Secretary Ms. Condoleezza Rice is the deceased father of former US Secretary Ms. Madeleine Albright, an exiled professor.
I wonder if our Defense Minister and I could pass an exam conducted by any exiled professor who might have still regarded Japanese as friends of Nazis.
(The Empire of Japan had not joined the Nazis' policies on Israelites.)
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Probably, some of you can win the favor of such other influential professors today in active service.
Then, our Defense Minister and I had better try to win your favor, while taking extra consideration on US female high-level government officials and politicians.
"DO NOT BE STUBBORN AGAIN"