[url]http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html[/url]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kyD_e0Y7FQ&feature=player_embedded[/media]
[quote]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 iRepublican vice president Dick Cheney is received by Emperor Akihito in 2007ts 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. (See Cheney-Akihito photo, right).
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. (See photo here)
How times change under Democratic presidents.
Back in 1994 when President Bill Clinton appeared to maybe perhaps almost start to bow to Akihito at a White House encounter, U.S. officials rushed to deny it was any such a thing. And the N.Y. Times chronicled the comedic drama here.
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, debaDemocrat president Barack Obama bows to the Saudi kingte has simmered over how much of a political puppet Hirohito was to the country's military before and during the war.
Even after Democratic 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 blacU.S. General Douglas MacArthur meets with Japan's Emperor Hirohitok 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....[/quote]
Dagnabbit how dare he show respect to other cultures
Oh my god showing respect for other world leaders. What a horrible man. Impeach, impeach!
I'm sorry but this is retarded.
If you're a guest in their country, you follow their traditions, that's how it works.
What!?! He bowed!?! Their equivalent of a handshake!?!
Get him the FUCK out of office.
[img]http://misterirrelevant.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/obama-beer.jpg[/img]
once again, obama does something little and idiots throw a shitstorm
[QUOTE=Dr Magnusson;18417298]If you're a guest in their country, you follow their traditions, that's how it works.[/QUOTE]
No! That's bitch shit!
Obama is a bitch!
When patriotism goes awry...
Hahhahhaha.
Oh my god, never have I seen such ignorance in a news outlet.
NewsBreak!: Bowing is a greeting in Japanese culture.
that wife looks blind
overreaction much
Glenn Beck just ripped up every pillow in his house.
Show of respect towards Japanese Culture, chill the fuck out.
Only in America.
What a bunch of bullshit. Instead of shaking hands they bow, what does it matter.
[QUOTE=Pumpkins;18417352]Glenn Beck just ripped up every pillow in his house.[/QUOTE]
What's he going to use to sit on now?!
This is FUCKING bullshit, I'm getting so sick of news shows spending time on stupid shit like this.
[QUOTE=VanillaBear;18417358]Only in America.[/QUOTE]
Stop trying to cause trouble.
I guess the idiots getting mad think Obama is acting like he's inferior or something.
When does doing something respectful get an angry response?
Emporer Usa is a bitch.
I'm American and I immediately thought thought when I saw this "Wow british people are going to be raving about this on the forums", never thought we could be this [I]stupid[/I].
Whatever it takes to make an unimportant event seem controversial...
I love that man more and more.
Why do I even read the news anymore, honestly.
People just want to hate him and make up stupid shit like this. It doesn't matter who's the president, someone going to bitch about something just because they don't like the person.
That article was hilarious.
I respect Obama More each day...
Dem commie....Wait.
But Bush kissed the Saudi Prince and held his hand. Nothing then. Why the fuck is this an issue?
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