American Nightmare Began

Inauguration of President of United States, Donald Trump, was reported to Japanese people with live coverages. The great Divider in Chief began to destroy the achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama, on the first day of his position, which reminded of dynamiting of Buddhas of Bamiyan by Taliban. The Japanese leaders witnessed American nightmare through Trump’s new policies such as stepping out of Trans-Pacific Partnership or abolition of Obamacare.

Certain amount of the Japanese still doubted that Trump might not take the office, imagining little possibility of assassination. That kind of unrealistic hope was crushed by his taking oath in front of Chief Justice, John Roberts. United States was still democratic enough not to cancel the ceremony of inauguration for broadly unwelcomed President.

The inauguration address was filled with internal messages. Trump defined the event as a ceremony of not merely transferring power from one administration to another but from Washington, D.C. to the people. Raising mothers and children trapped in poverty, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones, education system flush with cash and the crimes and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed the country of so much unrealized potential, Trump declared that American carnage stopped right there. Dismissing former administration with ignorance of old mistakes by his own party could resemble the way Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took in his administration.

Japanese governmental officials who focused on the direction of Japan-U.S. alliance looked like disappointed with emptiness of the address. Trump insisted that U.S. would reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism. One of the officers in Japanese Ministry of Defense saw no actual policy in his speech that ended with reiteration of his campaign slogans last year.

For the nightmare of Japan, Trump’s inauguration destroyed fundamental basis of Japan’s international trade, TPP. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” Trump cried out in his inauguration adderss. “We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interest first,” told Trump. After stepping down from the status of world policeman, U.S. started appealing its own right as a nation, ignoring its obligation or responsibility as the world leader. That is the greatest concern of Japan, or maybe nightmare, which security heavily relies on U.S.