The U.S.-Japan alliance is arguably now in the best shape it has ever been.
That makes it all the more disconcerting that both governments bungled their initial response to the first fatal crash of an Osprey aircraft in Japan last week.
On Nov. 29, a U.S. Air Force Osprey CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft plunged into the waters off Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, with the entire crew of eight confirmed dead on Wednesday, making the incident the deadliest ever since the aircraft formally entered operation in 2007.