How low will he go? Obama gives Japan's Emperor Akihito a wow bow

[Hazcat]

November 14, 2009 |  3:38 am

How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?

This photo will get Democrat President Obama a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention to the royal family living in its downtown castle. Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior.

To some in the United States, however, an upright handshake might have looked better. Remember Michelle Obama casually patting Britain's Queen Elizabeth on the back during their Buckingham Palace visit? America's royalty tends to make movies and get bad reviews and lots of money as a sign of respect.

Obama could receive some frowns back home as he did for his not-quite-this-low-or-maybe-about-the-same-bow to the Saudi king not so long ago.


Akihito, who turns 76 next month, is the eldest son and fifth child of Emperor Showa, the name given to an emperor and his reign after his death.

Emperor Showa is better known abroad by the life name of Hirohito. He became emperor in 1925 and died in 1989, the longest historically-known rule of the nation's 125 emperors.

Hirohito presided over his nation's growth from an undeveloped agrarian economy into the expansionist military power and ally of Nazi Germany of the 1930's.

And, later, Japan became a global economic giant. Hirohito, along with Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who authorized the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, were much reviled abroad during World War II.

Historically, debate has simmered over how much of a political puppet Hirohito was to the country's military before and during the war.

Even after Democrat President Harry Truman ordered the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945, there were strong forces within Japan that wanted to continue to fight the Americans in the spirit of kamikaze suicide pilots.

But Akihito's father went on national radio, the first time his subjects had ever heard Hirohito's voice, and without using the inflammatory word "surrender," pronounced that the country must "accept the unacceptable." It did.


As the conquering Allied general and then presiding officer of the U.S. occupation, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, decided to allow Japan to keep its emperor as a ceremonial unifying institution within a nascent democracy.

Tojo, on the other hand, was hanged.

MacArthur treated Emperor Hirohito respectfully but, as his body language in this black and white postwar photo demonstrates, was not particularly deferential.

(But then MacArthur was not known as a particularly deferential person, as Truman discovered just before firing him later. But that's another war.)

Akihito was born during Japan's conquering of China and was evacuated during the devastating American fire-bombing of Tokyo, which was built largely of wood in those days.

The future emperor learned English during the U.S. occupation, but, inexplicably, his father ordered that his oldest boy not receive an Army commission as previous imperial heirs always had.

Akihito assumed the throne on Jan. 7, 1989. Within weeks he began a series of formal expressions of remorse to Asian countries for Japan's actions during his father's reign. In 2003, he underwent surgery for prostate cancer.

In 1959, Akihito married Michiko Shoda, the first commoner allowed to enter the Japanese royal family. That was two years before the birth of Akihito's future presidential guest, Barack Obama.

Joe Biden was already 17 by then. But he wasn't a senator.

-- Andrew Malcolm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html

Photo at link

[twyacht]

Strike two,...

During a press conference, the Japanese press asked if Hiroshima and Nagasaki deserved the A-Bomb, BHO, of course, dodged the question.

But this bow?  By the Commander In Chief? He is disrespecting the very OFFICE. This has gone beyond just being a Democrat, this has become humiliating.

Does the emperor deserve respect? Sure, as most heads of state. Whether a figurehead or not. But to BOW!!!
"from article"

As the conquering Allied general and then presiding officer of the U.S. occupation, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, decided to allow Japan to keep its emperor as a ceremonial unifying institution within a nascent democracy.

Tojo, on the other hand, was hanged.

MacArthur treated Emperor Hirohito respectfully but, as his body language in this black and white postwar photo demonstrates, was not particularly deferential.

(But then MacArthur was not known as a particularly deferential person, as Truman discovered just before firing him later. But that's another war.)

I want MacArthur and Patton Americans back!!!!!. Real men. Bow to the Japanese Emperor, my Grandfather, Pacific WWII Veteran just gave BHO the middle finger salute from his grave.

So did another NON BOWING POTUS!! WE'RE AMERICANS, WE DON"T BOW!!!!




I'm really disgusted at this.

How many living WWII Veterans that fought in the Pacific do you think are enraged by this?

Haz said I can't use profanity anymore, so I'll just shut up and crack open an adult beverage......

[tombogan03884]

 Another thing about MacArthur and Hirohito, Mac Sent a message to the Emperor saying I would like to meet with you, My office is in the Di Ichi Building.
Mac Called and the Emperor went, NOT the other way around, that detail set the tone of the US occupation and is, in large part ,why there was no anti American resistance.  

[ericire12]

This gives it some great context:

http://hotairpundit.blogspot.com/2009/11/president-obama-vs-rest-of-world.html

[MikeBjerum]

It is one thing to be respectful, but to be so ignorant as to put yourself, and the entire country you represent, in a position of submission is treason.  Either stand up like a man and greet other leaders, or when you bow at least turn around and drop your drawers.

[Sponsor]

[Johnny Bravo]

BHO is an embarrassment to us and our country. I don't know how he can look in the mirror. He is a liar and a joke. It makes me sick to think that he represents our country. What the countries of the world think of us due to his type of weak knee, kiss ass approach. God Help Us !

[ericire12]

Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/15/japan-expert-to-abc-yes-obamas-bow-made-him-look-like-an-idiot/

[tombogan03884]

Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/15/japan-expert-to-abc-yes-obamas-bow-made-him-look-like-an-idiot/

So how is that differant than anything else he's done ?  
This asshole doesn't just babble the babble, he stumbles the stumble as well.   

[tt11758]

So how is that differant than anything else he's done ?  
This asshole doesn't just babble the babble, he stumbles the stumble as well.   

Maybe Ole Joe's been giving him lessons. 

[Pathfinder]

So how is that differant than anything else he's done ?   
This asshole doesn't just babble the babble, he stumbles the stumble as well.   

Maybe Ole Joe's been giving him lessons. 

That's the point, bho needs no instruction. He is an unaccomplished boob, an empty suit with nothing to him except his commie indoctrination and his teleprompter.

And that is just the way his handlers want him to be. In their quest to destroy this country, any inane, clumsy, boorish, selfish, disgraceful act (or non-act such as hustling his bony ass to Ft. Hood after the shootings) on his part is just fine, so long as it serves to diminish us in the eyes of the world, and weaken our power and our allies. By the time this POS leaves office, I doubt that there will be anyone who isn't laughing at us.

Sad fact is, he doesn't get it. He thinks his shit just doesn't stink.

Somewhere, the question was posed, what is it about bho and his amazon? My comment was simply that they are trailer trash who won the big lottery. We should expect more from the POTUS, but not from him - he is incapable, even with his handlers and minions, of behaving in any other way than he is behaving.