“Ashamed to Be Japanese”Kihei Maekawa,
I do not identify myself with the nation of Japan, so when a Japanese person wins a gold medal or a Nobel Prize, I admire the recipient — but I do not feel “proud as a Japanese”. Conversely, when a Japanese person commits some wrongdoing, I rarely feel “ashamed as a Japanese”. Yet the words and conduct of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the Japan-U.S. summit have, for the first time in a long while, made me feel exactly that — ashamed to be Japanese.
She suddenly lunged forward to embrace Trump. She called him “Donald” of her own accord, even though he never addressed her by her first name. She attempted to speak English, struggled to be understood, and failed. She called Trump’s son “a handsome guy”. She watched Trump’s face with the anxious attentiveness of a dog gazing up at its master. She laughed with apparent delight upon seeing the auto-pen photograph Trump had placed where the portrait of former President Biden once hung. And when Trump made reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor, she froze — unable to utter a single word.
Most shameful of all, she told the very man who started a war in Iran: “Only Donald can bring peace and prosperity to the entire world”. Sycophancy has its limits, and this exceeds all of them. Those who cry “kowtowing to China” the moment anyone attempts dialogue with Beijing — why do they not now cry “kowtowing to America” over this?
The reason I feel “ashamed as a Japanese” is that I am a sovereign citizen of a country burdened with a prime minister this obtuse, this vulgar, and this servile. We must find a way, and find it soon, to drive this prime minister from office.
Kihei Maekawa
