President Biden's message invoking “gun violence” in the wake of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination is a self-serving and egregious statement to Japan, one of America’s greatest allies.
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination shocked Japan and the world. He was shot and killed with an illegal, homemade gun while giving a stump speech ahead of the House of Councilor elections. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister was a staunch ally of the United States and perhaps the most significant leader Japan has had since World War II. He put Japan first and broke the mold of most Japanese politicians who prefer to take a backseat in world affairs by proposing the policy objective of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, a policy objective that the U.S. has since adopted. Abe was himself also adamantly pro-America and the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Given that Abe was one of the most consequential post-war leaders in Japan and such a close ally to the U.S. his murder while participating in the democratic process calls for a solemn and dignified response from world leaders. Many world leaders met the call with grace but Biden chose to prop up his unrelated political agenda on Abe’s grave before he was even buried.
Biden’s use of the phrase “gun violence” in his statement on Abe’s death shows disrespect for what happened. Gun violence is a politically charged phrase used by the left to criticize the right to bear arms. It has nothing to do with Abe’s assassination. Japan is an infamously safe country, with a low violent crime rate and a homicide rate as low as 0.3 per 100,000 people. It should be noted that this low crime rate is not due to their draconian firearm restrictions but rather due to Japanese culture. The weapon used was an illegal homemade firearm and bypassed Japan’s gun control laws after all. Biden is using the tragic death of a friend to the U.S. to try and score political points on a domestic policy debate.
Politicizing a tragedy is bad enough when we do it in America but to do this on the international level breaks even more norms of respect and dialogue. Underhanded rhetoric that distorts tragedies for self-serving political gains should be off the table for American leaders, especially when it comes to our allies. Under the previous administration, the media caused an uproar anytime they thought President Trump strayed from international norms or disrespected an ally. But the media is not only silent on Biden’s comment but NPR itself is politicizing the event with headlines demonizing Abe as a “divisive arch-conservative” and “ultranationalist.”
Some may try and write this off and gaslight Americans like me affronted by Biden’s remarks. But if Abe had been killed by some other means would the president have used similar language? If the murder weapon had been something like say a Japanese shortsword like the one used to assassinate Inejiro Asanuma, then head of the Japan Socialist Party in 1960 would Biden have included language about “sword violence” in his statement? If the Democrat Party’s concept of “gun violence” were relevant we might expect to see other world leaders invoke similar diction in their statements of condolences. This all lends to the fact that Biden’s statement was inappropriate.
As an American living in Japan and working in the freedom movement here, I have had the opportunity to experience politics here firsthand. Japan is one of America’s most, if not the most, important allies in the world. In the way of values, Japan shares a respect for freedom, the rule of law, and individual rights with the U.S. From a geopolitical perspective a strong, free Japan is essential in balancing against China and Russia. We are also deeply linked economically through trade and economic cooperation. The U.S. and Japan are natural allies such that even changes in administrations rarely fracture relations. While Biden’s politically charged comment is not something that will lose us an ally Americans should be aware that they certainly did not help bring us closer.
Perhaps the gun violence comment was written by a staffer. Perhaps Biden was not fully there when he wrote or approved it. While this could simply be the result of incompetence (something the administration is no stranger to) it is at the very least uninformed and callus. The fact that Biden would use Abe’s death to try to play politics and campaign points to a lack of genuine empathy.
Abe, like any world leader, was not without his faults. How you evaluated him as a politician may vary depending on your political persuasion. I was not a fan of his big-government Keynesian economic policies, for example. Regardless of politics, it is unbecoming of a U.S. official, particularly the president to play politics with Abe’s assassination. This is not how we should handle the death of foreign leaders, especially not ones so important to the U.S. The president’s words have real-world implications.