Obama's Bow to Emperor Provokes Outrage at Home

President Barack Obama's bow to the Emperor and Empress of Japan may have played well in Japan, but it has outraged conservative commentators and pundits.

Fox News led the criticism: "Obama’s silent bow is yet another way of apologizing for America’s misperceived arrogance and superiority. Our president has found yet another way to pander and apologize without ever uttering a single word," Bradley Blakeman wrote on the Fox website. "When the president bows to heads of state, various representatives of foreign governments or any other 'leader' he sends a message that America is weak and subservient." Andrew Malcolm, in a blog on the Los Angeles Times site, asked, "How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?" In a column entitled "Obama Bows, Nation Cringes"Wesley Pruden, editor emeritus of The Washington Times was unforgiving:

He established a new precedent for how American presidents should pay obeisance to kings, emperors, monarchs, sovereigns and assorted other authentic man-made masters of the universe. He stopped just this side of the full grovel to the emperor of Japan, risking a painful genuflection if his forehead had hit the floor with a nasty bump, which it almost did.

Despite the outrage in some circles in America, diplomats, protocol specialists and Japanese experts dismissed the issue as a tempest in a teapot. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told a press conference Monday that the bow was "a sign of respect to the emperor." According to Associated Press an online State Department posting from 2007 titled "Protocol for the Modern Diplomat," recommends envoys be aware of greeting rituals such as kisses, handshakes or bows and to follow a country's tradition. "Failure to abide with tradition may be interpreted as rudeness or a lack of respect for colleagues," it says. AP also noted that it is not clear whether the guidelines apply to the president. Experts in Japanese etiquette praised it as an appropriate show of respect. "Bowing is an expression of respect and open-mindedness as a person greets someone," Reiko Kasai, chief instructor at JAL Academy, an inter-cultural training school, told mysinchew.com. "It is part of a greeting, with which one shows his or her willingness for the meeting," she said. With regard to the depth of Obama's bow, Kasai had a simple and practical explanation: Given his height, Obama may have chosen to bow so low to make eye contact with the Emperor.