Enhanced military cooperation between the United States and Japan in the face of a rising China was emphasized as President Donald Trump concluded a four-day state visit in the island nation. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Tuesday morning, hosted Trump on the deck of the JS Kaga, one of Japan’s helicopter carriers that will soon be converted to carry a short takeoff/vertical landing variant of the American-made F-35 supersonic stealth jet fighter. 

The two leaders did not mention China by name in their remarks, but their concern about Beijing’s assertive stance militarily in the Pacific was obvious. 

WATCH: Trump Japan visit comes to a close

Abe spoke of an “increasingly severe security environment in the region.”

Trump said Japan’s purchase of an 105 additional F-35 Lightning II jets (each with a price tag of around $100 million) “will help our nations defend against a range of complex threats in the region and far beyond.” 

Later, addressing hundreds of sailors on the nearby USS Wasp, Trump said of the F-35 planes: “The enemy has a problem with it. You know what the problem is? They can’t see it.” 

Since the end of World War Two, when the United States and Japan were enemies, the Japanese have largely depended on American forces for defense. 

“Now the Chinese are flexing their muscles eyeing two Japanese island chains,” says a source close to Prime Minister Abe. 

“There’s an increasing need for us to do something on the eastern part of the archipelago with Japanese air power,” the source explained to VOA. “It is to supplement the U.S. 7th Fleet obviously and it is not to say the U.S. fleet is less accountable.”

There has been nervousness in Japan, which has a pacifist clause in its constitution imposed on it after the war by the U.S. occupation, about America’s long-term commitment to the defense of the island nation with scant natural resources. The worry grew after Trump won the 2016 presidential election. He had been known as a prominent “Japan basher” for decades as a real estate developer and has in office continued to criticize Tokyo for what he considers Japan taking unfair advantage of the United States in trade and not paying enough to host tens of thousands of American forces on its soil. 

Trump’s latest visit to Japan is seen as assuaging some of those concerns, although trade frictions persist. 

Trump, on Monday, said finalizing a new trade pact would be postponed until after parliamentary elections in Japan in July. 

Trump restrained himself during his visit by not pushing Abe too hard on trade, according to Yuki Tatsumi, co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C.

“For Trump to suggest that any trade deal will be after August was a good political gesture for Abe,” Tatsumi told VOA. “I think Abe will be put in a tougher spot in the long run, though. Atmospherics were extremely good indeed, but there was very little substance. There will be questions asked on whether it was worth it to welcome Trump with all those bells and whistles, especially when the visit achieved no concrete deliverable.” 

Trump repeatedly touted that he was honored to be the first state guest of the new Reiwa imperial era during which Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako hosted him and first lady Melania Trump for a banquet at the Imperial Palace on Monday evening. 

Abe accompanied Trump for a round of golf at a private course outside Tokyo and sat alongside him on the final day of a sumo wrestling tournament where the president awarded a large trophy, which he said he had personally purchased, to the champion wrestler. 
…

The United States paused Monday to honor its war dead on the annual Memorial Day.

With U.S. President Donald Trump in Japan on a state visit, Vice President Mike Pence laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington. Trump, before returning home, is marking the holiday with an address Tuesday to American troops at the Yokosuka U.S. Naval Base near Tokyo about the “global nature of the partnership between Japan and the U.S.”

At the cemetery, Pence told hundreds of military dignitaries and relatives of the fallen that the U.S. “can never fully repay” its debt to those who gave their lives for the country.

“We will never forget,” he said, “and we will never forget to honor” them. “Their duty was to serve, our duty is to honor them.”

Parades and somber remembrances are planned in U.S. cities large and small on Monday to recall the ultimate sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of Americans have borne for their country’s freedom through its 243-year existence.

It is estimated that 1.1 million Americans have died in conflict, but the largest single death toll — nearly a half million — came in the 19th century U.S. Civil War fought between northern and southern states over slavery, a practice ended after Union states in the northern U.S. prevailed. In the deadliest overseas conflict, more than 400,000 Americans were killed in World War II.

Various places across the U.S. have been cited in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, with perhaps the first commemoration of war dead in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended. In early rural America, families often marked the day in late summer. For years, the memorial was known as Decoration Day and the fallen from all U.S. wars were remembered and their service honored.

Memorial Day for years was set on May 30, but it became a national U.S. holiday in 1971 and now is celebrated on the last Monday in May. For some, a national moment of remembrance is set at 3 p.m. local time on the holiday.

Families of the fallen often visit the grave sites of their loved ones or watch parades with bands and flag-waving marchers. But for other Americans, the day is unofficially the beginning of summer and part of a three-day weekend when families head to parks and the beach or enjoy picnics with friends and relatives.

In Washington on Sunday, thousands of motorcycles roared through the streets for what organizers say will be the last Rolling Thunder celebration in the nation’s capital.

The annual Memorial Day tradition is meant to draw attention to more than 83,000 U.S. military personnel still listed as Missing in Action from World War I through the recent fighting in Iraq. The list also includes 126 people believed missing from operations related to the Cold War.

The first Rolling Thunder was held in 1988. The cyclists usually meet up in a Pentagon parking lot and ride into downtown Washington across the various bridges spanning the Potomac River.

But Rolling Thunder Executive Director Artie Muller said this is the last year he will hold the ride in Washington.

Muller said he has grown frustrated with the Pentagon bureaucracy in coordinating the event. Mueller said sponsors, vendors and others have not been given access to parking lots even though Rolling Thunder said it paid “exorbitant permit fees.”

For many people, the group’s decades-long presence with the loud roar of their motorcycle engines has become synonymous with Memorial Day activities in Washington.

Trump says Rolling Thunder is always welcome in the city.

“The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder will be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, and hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be and where they should be,” Trump tweeted as he thanked the “great men & women of the Pentagon for working it out.”

In an interview with VOA, Muller said Rolling Thunder is “willing to talk” with the president. But despite the president’s postings on Twitter, Muller said, “I think we really want to go nationwide” with local chapters holding their own observations on Memorial Day.

Muller said the annual trek to the nation’s capital is becoming too much for some Rolling Thunder members. “We’re all getting old and can’t ride that far,” he said. For members who come from the West Coast, Muller said, “It a haul. You’re talking 2 to 3,000 miles… That takes a lot out of you.”

Pentagon figures show 83,000 American military personnel remain unaccounted for. Most of them — about 73,000 — are from World War II. Upwards of 7,700 are from the Korean War, and more than 1,600 are from the Vietnam War.

Trump, before he left for Tokyo to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said he is considering pardons for several military servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes, an action that critics say would be an abuse of his pardon powers.

“We’re looking at a lot of different pardons for a lot of different people,” Trump said at the White House.

“Some of these soldiers are people that have fought hard, long, you know. We teach them how to be great fighters and when they fight sometimes they get really treated very unfairly. So we’re going to take a look at it,” Trump said.

He acknowledged that two or three cases were “a little bit controversial.”

But as Memorial Day dawned across the U.S., Trump had yet to announce any pardons.

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday became the first foreign leader to meet with Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, who ascended to the throne May 1.

Trump, who began a four-day visit to Japan on Saturday, started his formal visit on Monday, meeting with Naruhito and Empress Masako.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump took part in an elaborate welcoming ceremony at the Imperial Palace shortly after 9 a.m. local time.

The U.S. delegation was greeted at the palace by several dozen elementary schoolchildren waving Japanese and American flags. A military band played the U.S. “Star Spangled Banner” and Kimigayo anthems.

Later Monday, Trump will attend meetings at the Japanese state guest house, where he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are expected to discuss trade and defense matters.

No quick breakthrough on trade is expected although both leaders have expressed a desire for a bilateral trade pact after Trump pulled the United States out of the comprehensive 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Tokyo had spearheaded with Washington under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

Abe and Trump will hold a joint news conference Monday afternoon.

The emperor is hosting an imperial banquet at the palace Monday night.

On Sunday, Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton were publicly at odds about the seriousness of the threat currently posed by North Korea.

In a Sunday morning tweet from Tokyo, Trump issued a retort to Bolton who the previous day here had told reporters that there was “no doubt” North Korea’s recent test firing of short-range ballistic missiles violated a United Nations resolution.

Bolton’s remark was the first by a U.S. official describing the North Korean launches as a violation of U.N. resolutions.

“North Korea fired off some small weapons which disturbed some of my people and others, but not me,” said Trump in his tweet.

Trump’s tweet on North Korea caused confusion and consternation, not only within the administration but also among America’s allies in the region, acknowledged senior White House officials traveling with the president

Some analysts say the missile launches are indeed a concern.  

“It’s pretty clear the missile launch was a violation of U.N. sanctions, whatever the range. The reality is that U.S. forces and civilians in South Korea and Japan are already in range of North Koreans missiles, so accepting shorter or mid-range missiles puts the United States at risk, not to mention our allies Japan and the Republic of Korea,” Kevin Maher, a Washington security consultant and a former head of the State Department’s Office of Japan Affairs, tells VOA. “These realities are inconvenient if the objective is to show a personal relationship with the dictator Kim Jung UN will stop North Korea’s continuing nuclear and missile programs.”

The U.S. president also expressed confidence the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, “will keep his promise to me” in moving towards denuclearization.

Trump in the tweet also said he smiled when Kim called former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden “a low IQ individual.”

The initial presidential tweet misspelled the Democratic Party presidential contender’s name as “Bidan” and was later replaced. And it was not Kim who made the disparaging remark about Biden, rather an unsigned commentary carried by North Korea’s central news agency, which referred to the American politician as a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being.”

Trump concluded his tweet by stating that perhaps Kim was trying “to send me a signal” — apparently a reference that the leader in Pyongyang prefers to negotiate with the current American president over the opposition party’s top-polling contender.

Trump and Kim have held two summits – in Singapore and Hanoi. Neither has led to any significant breakthroughs although the meetings were seen as reducing tensions between the two countries which have no diplomatic relations and their leaders had never met before.

The United States and North Korea were belligerents in a three-year war in the early 1950’s which devastated the Korean peninsula. It ended with an armistice, but no peace treaty has ever been signed.

Bolton, who 13 months ago replaced retired Army General H.R. McMaster as the president’s national security adviser, is known as a hardliner who distrusts Pyongyang’s intentions.

North Korea has a long track record of violating international agreements and has repeatedly defied U.N. sanctions against its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Before Trump departs Japan on Tuesday, he is to visit the naval base at Yokosuka to tour a Japanese helicopter carrier and address American service personnel in conjunction with the U.S. Memorial Day holiday (observed on Monday).

 
…