There are many who are commenting that Obama’s bow was yet another sign of his naivete’ on the world stage. The incident is taken as another data-point that his ‘not-ready-for-prime-time’ administration doesn’t understand the intricacies or symbols of world diplomacy.

That is all possible and, to us, would be an almost best-case interpretation. More troubling for us was the depth of that bow, which, at almost a 45 degree angle, is the traditional bow of apology in Japan. Given Obama’s obsession with nuclear weapons, was Obama publicly apologizing to the Emperor for our bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II? We think it is likely that Obama knew exactly what he was doing. While the rest of the media debates whether or not the bow was a protocol blunder, the Emperor would fully understand the gesture.

It is official, the United States has now formally apologized to Japan for dropping the nuclear bomb.

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