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Source: The American Conservative
Our Man in Tokyo
The Japanese people have grown tired of being dictated to by Washington liberals.
Source: The American Conservative
Our Man in Tokyo
The Japanese people have grown tired of being dictated to by Washington liberals.
Rahm Emanuel (Public Domain)
By Jason Morgan | May 17, 2023
Some audience members came up to me after a speech I gave in downtown Tokyo in late April. They were hopping mad at Rahm Emanuel, the man whom Washington sent a little over a year ago to do its business in Japan. And what does that business entail? If Emanuel's April tweets are any indication, it entails interfering in internal Japanese political matters.
Over a series of tweets in late April, Ambassador Emanuel shared photos of himself and the American Embassy staff heading out—in full rainbow regalia, the new red, white, and blue—to join the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade. The usual celebration of civilizational collapse? All in a day's work for our man in Tokyo.
But it was this tweet that started the firestorm: "Now is the time, now is the moment for Japan to be all that Japan can be. You could feel the energy in the air at @Tokyo_R_Pride. Today was a parade with purpose."
Many in Japan were appalled. Not just at the sentiment, of course, or at the tone-deafness of a man who speaks zero Japanese inserting himself into a national debate he knows nothing about. After all, we know that liberal Americans consider themselves culturally superior to the Japanese. That was the entire premise behind dismantling the Japanese constitution and imposing a new one. Never mind that Japan has been a democratic country since the 19th century.
The sheer cultural chauvinism of the American Embassy is a daily occurrence. And it's not just the embassy in Tokyo that's so good at it. Everywhere you find an American diplomatic outpost, you'll find people who specialize in evangelizing for sodomy and the exportation of democracy via drone strike. Most Americans don't realize it, but overseas the rainbow flag and the arms deal together have become the national brand.
No, what was appalling was that the American ambassador to Japan was not even pretending that the country he runs as proconsul has a functioning democracy of its own, or any sovereignty to speak of. Teruhisa Se, an extraordinarily thoughtful scholar and public intellectual who teaches political theory and political philosophy at Kyushu University, spoke truthfully when he called Ambassador Emanuel's display "naisei kansho"—interference in internal governmental affairs.
Emanuel was just getting started. A couple of days after essentially tweeting policy orders to the Japanese government, he was back on Twitter: "The @Tokyo_R_Pride parade may be over, but the march towards #equality continues—now is the time! Great to see @Marriage4All_ Director Matsunaka Gon to talk about how to move forward to a place where there is not 'gay marriage' and 'straight marriage,' but just 'marriage.'"
The next day, as his Twitter feed lit up with outraged Japanese people denouncing his high-handed tactics and vowing that Japan would never go the way of the Democrat-run USA, Ambassador Emanuel hit back with this very thinly veiled threat:
But who needs democratic discourse? What was apparent to all observers was that Emanuel was pushing to have the bill clear committee and get voted into law before Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosted the G7 summit in Hiroshima. Japanese politics, as always, bend to serve Washington's interests.
Please go to The American Conservative to continue reading.
Some audience members came up to me after a speech I gave in downtown Tokyo in late April. They were hopping mad at Rahm Emanuel, the man whom Washington sent a little over a year ago to do its business in Japan. And what does that business entail? If Emanuel's April tweets are any indication, it entails interfering in internal Japanese political matters.
Over a series of tweets in late April, Ambassador Emanuel shared photos of himself and the American Embassy staff heading out—in full rainbow regalia, the new red, white, and blue—to join the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade. The usual celebration of civilizational collapse? All in a day's work for our man in Tokyo.
But it was this tweet that started the firestorm: "Now is the time, now is the moment for Japan to be all that Japan can be. You could feel the energy in the air at @Tokyo_R_Pride. Today was a parade with purpose."
Many in Japan were appalled. Not just at the sentiment, of course, or at the tone-deafness of a man who speaks zero Japanese inserting himself into a national debate he knows nothing about. After all, we know that liberal Americans consider themselves culturally superior to the Japanese. That was the entire premise behind dismantling the Japanese constitution and imposing a new one. Never mind that Japan has been a democratic country since the 19th century.
The sheer cultural chauvinism of the American Embassy is a daily occurrence. And it's not just the embassy in Tokyo that's so good at it. Everywhere you find an American diplomatic outpost, you'll find people who specialize in evangelizing for sodomy and the exportation of democracy via drone strike. Most Americans don't realize it, but overseas the rainbow flag and the arms deal together have become the national brand.
No, what was appalling was that the American ambassador to Japan was not even pretending that the country he runs as proconsul has a functioning democracy of its own, or any sovereignty to speak of. Teruhisa Se, an extraordinarily thoughtful scholar and public intellectual who teaches political theory and political philosophy at Kyushu University, spoke truthfully when he called Ambassador Emanuel's display "naisei kansho"—interference in internal governmental affairs.
Emanuel was just getting started. A couple of days after essentially tweeting policy orders to the Japanese government, he was back on Twitter: "The @Tokyo_R_Pride parade may be over, but the march towards #equality continues—now is the time! Great to see @Marriage4All_ Director Matsunaka Gon to talk about how to move forward to a place where there is not 'gay marriage' and 'straight marriage,' but just 'marriage.'"
The next day, as his Twitter feed lit up with outraged Japanese people denouncing his high-handed tactics and vowing that Japan would never go the way of the Democrat-run USA, Ambassador Emanuel hit back with this very thinly veiled threat:
The equality countdown begins now. As I said at Tokyo Rainbow Pride and will say again: no one should have patience when it comes to equal rights for all. This is the time, this is the moment to have your voices heard as the Diet meets today. It's time for a new era where members of the LGBTQI+ community feel at home in [Japan] & [America].The Diet reference was about an LGBT bill advancing through the Japanese parliament. For weeks on end now, the Japanese papers and the national conversation have been addled with talk about the bill. Pitched as a way to end discrimination against "sexual minorities," the bill, say its many critics, is unnecessary and will harm Japanese society.
But who needs democratic discourse? What was apparent to all observers was that Emanuel was pushing to have the bill clear committee and get voted into law before Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosted the G7 summit in Hiroshima. Japanese politics, as always, bend to serve Washington's interests.
Please go to The American Conservative to continue reading.
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