Deepest Regret from U.S. President

It was not imaginable a week ago. The bilateral top meeting was hijacked by an incident in Okinawa, in which a tail of United States Force abandoned corpse of young girl. Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, firmly protested against United States with his political necessity to show courageous attitude. U.S. President, Barack Obama, was careful not to be looking as apologizing to Japan, while extending his “sincerest condolences and deepest regret.” Their defensive attitude for their standpoints would not fundamentally settle the problem.

Abe focused on the anger of people in Okinawa or Japan. “At the very outset of our small group discussion, I firmly lodged a protest against President Obama as the Japanese Prime Minister with regard to the most recent case in Okinawa,” told Abe to the press. “This case has shocked not only Okinawa, but also deeply shocked the entire Japan. I conveyed to the President that such feelings of Japanese people should be sincerely taken to heart. I also urged the United States to make sure to take effective and thorough means to prevent a recurrence, and vigorously and strictly address the situation.”

Obama began his statement on positive aspect of the bilateral relationship. “Prime Minister Abe and his team have done an outstanding job preparing for the G7 Summit. And we discussed, as Shinzo indicated, the need for us to continue to boost global growth and to move ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” told Obama. It was embarrassingly inappropriate for U.S. President to spare a statement on the murder case at the beginning, when Japanese public was expecting apologetic words from him.

Obama expressed the case as “tragedy.” “And the United States will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation to ensure that justice is done under the Japanese legal system,” added Obama. That was it. Newspapers argued whether Obama apologized on the case. They carried news that U.S. side corrected its translation of Obama’s statement, which lacked the part of “deepest regrets.” Newspapers discussed which would be the deepest, “very apologetic” Secretary of State John Kerry or “deepest regrets” from Obama.

Argument over expression did not have any impact on furious Okinawa. Okinawa Prefectural Congress passed a resolution that requested retreat of U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa, abandonment of the relocation plan of Futenma Marine Air Base to Henoko and fundamental reviewing of Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement. “I cannot help doubting U.S. Force’s effort for prevention or effectiveness of education,” said Okinawan Governor, Takeshi Onaga. But, the outcome of the bilateral top meeting was that they would never listen to the voices.