I read Timothy Bedwell's July 19 letter, "As weak as his predecessors," with great interest because it describes very well the characteristics of Japan's prime ministers, most of whom have been very obedient to the U.S. administration. The Noda government doesn't seem to have the strength or the will to directly convey the feelings either of the people of Okinawa or of the city of Iwakuni concerning the deployment of the Osprey aircraft.
I am ashamed to admit that the Japanese people are very obedient to those in higher positions while acting arrogantly toward those in lower positions. The past dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party and now the Democratic Party of Japan demonstrate this. For example, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided to restart reactors at the Oi nuclear plant, disregarding the opinions of so many Japanese, including the people of Fukushima, who have suffered greatly as a result of the nuclear plant disaster.
I admire Bedwell's frankness in referring to the U.S. as the "world's most belligerent and warmongering power." If a citizen of the former USSR or a Japanese from the 1930s had called his country that, he surely would have been arrested at the very least. So, the glory of American democracy is that a man like Bedwell is free to express his opinion. Personally, I thought America had become the world's most belligerent and warmongering country in 2003, when President George W. Bush invaded Iraq.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.