Spring break: The real reason Michelle Obama is going to Japan
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Husna Haq Correspondent
[Editor's note: The original version misstated the Obama daughters' vacation plans.]
Call it a diplomatic-patching-up, a spring break-smoothing of ties, a placating-vacation.
Michelle Obama is聽traveling聽to Japan and Cambodia聽March 18-22聽for聽a state-sanctioned聽spring break.聽
Of course, Mrs. Obama doesn鈥檛 just recline聽poolside 鈥撀爏he聽pleasure-travels with a purpose.聽
The White House has聽said聽聽to promote the USAID "" and a related Peace Corps program.
But here's the likely true mission: to propitiate the Japanese people, who haven't quite gotten over the Double Diss of 2014.
You see,聽President Obama visited Tokyo last year聽and that delighted the Japanese, ever apprehensive of their global popularity. But when he disembarked from Air Force One solo, without the first lady, the Japanese were dejected.
"Michelle鈥檚 absence has thrown Tokyo into a tizzy,"聽the Monitor's Howard LaFranchi reported at the time, noting the hand-wringing and national soul-searching that took place as a result. "Mrs. Obama鈥檚 absence is a woeful sign of Japan鈥檚 retreat from the top tier of America鈥檚 allies."
To add diplomatic insult to injured national pride, Mrs. Obama had the audacity to vacation with her daughters 鈥� less than a month prior to the president's solo Japan visit 鈥� in China.
How that passed the White House's diplomatic protocol department, we'll never know.
"To the Japanese, the sight of Michelle jumping rope with Chinese kids, feeding pandas, trying out tai-chi, and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, was more than insult added to injury," reported LaFranchi. "It was proof of China鈥檚 ascendency to the top rung of America鈥檚 strategic priorities and Japan鈥檚 fall to second class."
And while the White House waved that off as hogwash and the president did his best to charm the Japanese without his better half, it appears Michelle聽has聽some national-ego-boosting business to attend to in Japan.
Hence Spring Break Asia, Take 2.
Look for the expected photo ops 鈥撀爏ampling sushi in Tokyo, strolling the Kyoto gardens, visiting uniformed Japanese students in a local school聽鈥� as well as a diplomatic visit with Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
If all goes as planned,聽the first lady聽will depart victorious, having mollified the Japanese, again secure in their world status.
