Caroline Kennedy Inducted Ambassador to Japan

Nearly 50 years after the assassination in Dallas of her father, President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy was inducted on Tuesday as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. The ceremony was very discreet. Closed to the press, it took place in the offices of Secretary of State John Kerry. Afterward, a reception was held at the Japanese embassy in Washington. The media could attend but were not permitted to interview the new diplomat.

Caroline Kennedy is not an expert on Japan; she doesn’t have any particular network there, either. Her nomination is above all a reward for her loyalty to Barack Obama, whom she tirelessly supported in the Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2012, saying that he is the type of leader that JFK would have respected and admired. Her special relationship with Obama began with John Kerry. Japan “knows that it is getting an envoy who has the ear of the president. And that, as we all know, is a vital thing in the conduct of foreign policy,” stressed the head of American diplomacy. Caught up in a moment of nostalgia, Kerry even recounted his first disastrous meeting with Caroline Kennedy, many decades ago. He stepped on her toes when she was a child and caused her to burst into tears.

Honeymoon in Japan

Conscious of the symbolism of this nomination at the same time as the 50th anniversary of her father’s death, Caroline Kennedy said that she was determined to embody his ideals in Japan. John Kennedy was wounded in 1943 during World War II in the Pacific, on board a patrol boat fighting the Japanese. When he was elected president, he planned his first state visit to Japan to renew the Japanese-American military alliance, but he was killed before he got the chance to go. Japan remains the United States’ “most important ally,” and “my husband and I and my children are so excited to be going to Japan,” said the daughter of John and Jackie Kennedy. She flies out on Thursday for the Land of the Rising Sun.

In a video posted on the website of the American embassy in Japan, Caroline Kennedy expands a bit more on her ties to Japan. “I am fortunate to have studied Japanese history and culture and to have visited your beautiful country. When I was 20, I accompanied my uncle, Senator Edward Kennedy, on a trip to Hiroshima. It left me with a profound desire to work for a better, more peaceful world,” explained the lawyer in this statement, subtitled in Japanese and peppered with personal anecdotes. “A few years later my husband, Ed, and I returned to Nara and Kyoto on our honeymoon. Since that time, I’ve seen firsthand how American and Japanese people are bound by common values. We share a commitment to freedom, human rights and the rule of law,” she added.

And she promised: “As ambassador, I look forward to fostering the deep friendship, strategic alliance and economic partnership between our countries…. Growing up in a family dedicated to public service, I saw how people can come together to solve challenges through commitment, communication and cooperation.” Caroline Kennedy, who is the first female ambassador to Japan, concluded her message with “Nihon de o-ai shimashou (see you in Japan).” In this video, the lawyer appeared much more comfortable than during her interviews in Dec. 2008. Briefly considered to succeed Hillary Clinton in the Senate, her interviews at that time were deemed unconvincing.