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The ongoing cable-and-blog dust-up over whether President Obama somehow dishonored America’s image by bowing to Emperor Akihito of Japan the other day was reminiscent of another argument over the exact same issue – 20 years ago.

It was a different president, of course: George H.W. Bush, who came to the issue with some pretty solid credentials: as a young man who was shot out of the sky by the Japanese. And it was a different moment: The funeral of Emperor Hirohito, Japan’s wartime leader, and father of the current Japanese emperor.

Mr. Bush was even newer to the presidency at that moment than Mr. Obama is today. Barely a month in office, he traveled to Tokyo for Hirohito’s funeral, declaring it was the right way to honor a former enemy turned ally. It was the first imperial funeral in many decades, a huge state event. And naturally it poured rain on the guests; ladies in their finest kimonos and Sumo wrestlers alike sank into the mud.

Then came the moment: When Mr. Bush approached the emperor’s casket, he bowed deeply.

Those of us who had lived in Japan thought nothing of it. That is how respect is shown in Japan. But the pre-cable pundits were screaming, and soon one of our colleagues, the late Gerald Boyd, asked Mr. Bush about it at a news conference.



Mr. Bush danced around an answer for a moment, mentioning members of his squadron who never came home, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s decision to keep the emperor system, as a way of unifying the Japanese people. Then he said this:

I’m representing the United States of America. And we’re talking about a friend, and we’re talking about an ally. We’re talking about a nation with whom we have constructive relationships. Sure, we got some problems, but that was all overriding — and respect for the Emperor. And remember back in World War II, if you’d have predicted that I would be here, because of the hard feeling and the symbolic nature of the problem back then of the former Emperor’s standing, I would have said, “No way.” But here we are, and time moves on; and there is a very good lesson for civilized countries in all of this.

So did President Obama violate protocol? Well, yes, but not by bowing. He made the mistake of both shaking hands and bowing at the same time, a big breach of etiquette. The truth was that he was supposed to choose one or the other.