The following is from an article by Rui Abiru in the now on-sale monthly magazine "Sound Arguments"
He is a rare authenticity for a working journalist.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Preamble omitted.
A senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official visited the United States around this time to explain the historical issues between Japan, China, and South Korea to U.S. government officials and think tanks, and the media, complained, "The U.S. government does not understand that Japan has never been at war with South Korea and that South Korea has nothing to do with the Yasukuni Shrine issue. They also underestimate the significance of the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan and the fact that it is a central facility for commemorating the war dead."
Expressing "Disappointment" without Strategy
When Mr. Abe actually visited Yasukuni Shrine, the U.S. Embassy in Japan expressed "disappointment," claiming that it was an order from the White House.
It was Mr. Biden's insistence that the U.S., which until then had never publicly criticized any Japanese prime minister for visiting Yasukuni Shrine, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's six visits to the shrine, dare to express its "disappointment.
Biden, who had been informed of Abe's intention to visit the Yasukuni Shrine but had ignored it because of his assumptions, was furious that he had lost his credibility after brokering a rapprochement with South Korea and expressed his "disappointment" in an unprecedented manner.
As one might expect, the White House refrained from expressing its disappointment, but from the Japanese point of view, it was a great inconvenience.
Mr. Abe's anger was tremendous at the time.
"The U.S. is not strategic at all," he said. （At a time when China and South Korea are blaming Japan for the historical issue) a statement like that by the U.S. will only increase the momentum of anti-Japanese sentiment in China and South Korea, heightening tensions in East Asia. It makes no sense at all as a U.S. global strategy."
The fierce reaction on the part of Abe and others in Japan was immediately conveyed to the U.S. side.
As the year progressed into 2014, the U.S. side turned around and positioned the Yasukuni Shrine visit as a done deal and began to play up the reconciliation between the U.S. and Japan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon began to hear such words of remorse from the U.S. State Department.
"The U.S. Embassy in Japan translated the word "disappointed" as "disappointment," which is too strong an expression. At least it should have been "discouragement" or "regret."
On January 4, I received a phone call from Mr. Abe.
"Today, U.S. Secretary of Defense Hagel said he wanted to call me to thank me for approving Okinawa Prefecture's landfill in Henoko, Nago City, for the relocation of the Futenma Air Station. The U.S. must be in quite a panic. The website of the U.S. Embassy in Japan is in a terrible mess (with comments in reaction to the disappointment expressed). It's interesting, so you should take a look at it."
He then added the following to the end.
I was so angry that I thought about not accepting the U.S. request for a telephone conference call, but I received it on the condition that the U.S. would not criticize the visit to Yasukuni Shrine."
Then I said, "The reaction on the U.S. side is that it's too late for anything," Mr. Abe responded.
"Yes, it's a little too late for that. Moreover, it was an intense pleasure after the Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshitaka Shindo visited Yasukuni Shrine on New Year's Day. I am considering not accepting any offers from the U.S. Embassy to meet with him for a while."
When the Sankei Shimbun wrote an inside story about this exchange between Abe and Biden at the end of January, Abe called me with a chuckle.
He said, "The Yasukuni article, good for you. I heard that made Mr. Biden angry. He complained to Kenichiro Sasae, the ambassador to the United States. But Mr. Biden is actually saying that. They don't try and tell me that! "Was disappointed"
Around this time, Abe sometimes referred to a memoir published in the United States by Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration for two and a half years.
"In his book, Gates also writes that he has never had one good thing to say about Biden's decisions."
In fact, in his book, Gates describes Biden, whose knowledge and experience in international politics he claims is second to none, as "a man of integrity" but dismisses him as follows: "Mr. Biden has made mistakes in almost every significant foreign policy and security decision he has made in the past forty years."
In February of this year, Abe's close aide, Seiichi Eto, made headlines when he said on the Internet.
"The United States has expressed its disappointment, but it seems more like we are the ones who are disappointed. So why doesn't the U.S. take care of its ally Japan?"
The Japanese media criticized this as a "terrible gaffe," There was a fuss about whether it would anger the U.S., but the U.S. no longer reacted in any particular way.
At the time, Mr. Abe spoke coldly about the media's flattering attitude toward the United States.
"Don't they think they're being sneaky and self-deprecating? It's a laughable story."
At the time, Koichi Hagiuda, special assistant to the president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), also commented, "The U.S. never fried itself like this during the Republican administration. It is saying this because it is President Obama's administration." he said.
In other words, the anger at the "disappointment" statement was the consensus of the Abe administration.
Who Created the Divide?
The opposition parties and leftist media often criticized Mr. Abe and his foreign policy as if he were following the U.S. path.
However, I never had such an impression when actually covering Mr. Abe. Rather, he took a tough stance against U.S. ignorance, arrogance, and selfish imposition of good intentions.
In particular, I have heard him say the following about the U.S. meddling in the issue of Japan's perception of history.
"I don't want the United States, which dropped two atomic bombs on Japan and conducted the air raid on Tokyo (deliberately targeting innocent civilians), to talk to me about historical issues. Does the U.S. have the right to say that?"
He used to be on friendly terms with American experts on Japan, who were said to be knowledgeable about Japan, but that was not the case regarding historical issues.
When former Deputy Secretary of State Armitage, a Republican, asked Abe to make concessions to South Korea on the comfort women issue and other issues, Abe responded as follows.
"Many Japanese conservatives are pro-U.S. but have not forgotten the U.S. atomic bombings and the Tokyo Air Raid. If the U.S. side raises the comfort women issue and other issues too much, they too will bring up those past issues."
In response to Mr. Abe's vigor, Mr. Armitage silently backed down, saying, "Is that so?"
Returning to Mr. Biden, I had the following conversation with Mr. Abe on October 13, 2020, before Mr. Biden assumed the presidency.
During my visit to Mr. Abe's office in the House of Representatives building, the topic of conversation turned to the U.S. presidential election and the state of U.S. society.
In Japan, it is often said that U.S. society has become more divided under the Republican administration of President Trump, but Mr. Abe expressed a different view.
"Mr. Trump did not create the division, but the division of U.S. society created President Trump. And it was liberals who created that division during the eight years of former Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. A Biden administration would only further divide the country."
Under the Obama administration, liberals have continued to overplay political correctness as if they were the righteous ones. As a result, conservatives hid their true feelings and felt alienated, and they welcomed the emergence of Trump, who is free from hypocrisy.
Obama initially feared Abe as a historical revisionist and a dangerous nationalist. Still, Mr. Abe gradually melted his guard and eventually took him to Hiroshima, the site of the atomic bombing.
Mr. Abe approached Mr. Trump even before his inauguration to create a honeymoon relationship, but it was not because of a personal liking for Mr. Trump.
Even if the other party was Mr. Biden, there is no doubt that he would have made efforts to build a good relationship if he were the U.S. president.
Prime Minister Kishida should take advantage of the legacy of Mr. Abe's historic "rapprochement" with the U.S., including his speech to a joint session of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and the rails he laid to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance.
It's OK to get along well with Mr. Biden, but please refrain from following in his footsteps of him, who has made almost every critical diplomatic and security decision wrong.
