Not surprising.
Japan is proud of its horrifying actions in WW2. It sees no need to apologize for them. But Obama and Kerry, like the rest of the left, are ashamed that America defeated two genocidal world powers. They see the need to make conciliatory gestures. Though Japan needs the US for a strategic relationship, it's making no concessions here.
As usual we're the only ones apologizing for the heroism and courage of our greatest generation.
Barack Obama said Wednesday he plans to use his historic visit to Hiroshima with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reflect on the suffering of war and the need to take steps to prevent it. Abe said he had no plans to reciprocate Obama's gesture by paying his own visit to Pearl Harbor.
Obama's opened his trip to Japan with much intrigue about his upcoming stop in the city where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb. But that first-ever visit by a sitting American president was caught up in the controversy in Japan over the recent arrest of a former Marine in connection with the murder of a Japanese woman in Okinawa.
Abe ripped into Obama while demanding U.S. steps to prevent further incidents. Obama told Abe that the U.S. would support having the suspect prosecuted through Japan's legal system.
Of course he would. Japan's legal system is deeply problematic for various cultural reasons. And there's a Status of Forces Agreement in place. Which Obama has chosen to toss aside.
"One of the things I hope to reflect on when I'm at Hiroshima and certainly something I reflected on when I was in Vietnam was just a reminder that war involves suffering," Obama said after arriving from Vietnam. "We should always do what we can to prevent it."
What exactly were we supposed to do to prevent WW2? Let Japan and Nazi Germany win. Maybe that's Obama's answer.