@SeaGreenEyez It's Obama protocol. Want to see him bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia too?

@SeaGreenEyez Let me help you out. Japanese Emperor worship led to the death of 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 people. When we defeated the Japanese in WWII, the first and foremost priority was to convince the Japanese that the emperor was just a man, and a very small unimpressive man at that. Here's the first photograph of a US dignitary next to the Japanese emperor. All other photos of US leaders with the Japanese emperor were like that until that damned fool Obama went over there and bowed to him (way more than 45 degrees).

@BD66 Bowing is customary not only to the emperor...but also to elders and those who are in higher positions...it is just a polite gesture of respect...that being said, bowing is not recommended...my dad was military in Japan and I have his protocol book...people in uniform normally do not bow...if you do choose to bow out of respect for the customs, then it will be looked upon with much honor by the receiver, but not a slight if you do not...I think both Obama and tRump did what they do based on their own personal style or lack thereof...

Bowing in Japan is custom. Bowing to the Saudi King was bad, but not horrific. Trump saluted a North Korea general!

@dokala I challenge you to find another US politician (other than Obama) who has ever bowed to the Japanese emperor.

@BD66 ooookkkaaaayyy, because going back Half A Century is Soooo helpful now.........

@BD66
You act as if it was wrong or bad. It wasn't.
What, no comment about Trump saluting a North Korean general?

@dokala It's a matter of scale. I'm about to start a 3 hour meeting. When I'm done, time permitting, it's time for a history lesson.

@dokala Let's start with the three countries that started WWII:

Germany: A nation in the midst of Hitler hero-worship
USSR: A nation scared to death of Joseph Stalin
Japan: A nation in the midst of worshiping the Japanese Emperor as both the head of state and a living god.

Next Let's look at Civilian deaths:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Estimates of total deaths are are 70 to 85 million. (this is likely low)

Look at China, Japan, Dutch East Indies, Korea, Malaya, Singapore, New Guinea, Phillippines, Portuguese Timor, South Pacific Mandate, Thailand, and a good portion of the United States:

The Japanese Emperor and the people who used the worship of the Japanese Emperor to seize and maintain power are responsible for about about 30 million of those deaths.

That government, that head of state, and that religion are the single biggest killer in the history of the world.

They likely caused the death of more people than Stalin, Hitler, or Mao.

If you look at worst, most destructive religion/political state on the face of the earth today, it is ISIS. I looked for estimates of the number of people killed by ISIS, and it appears to be about 20,000 people.

So Japan and the Shinto religion killed approximately 1500 times more people in the 1930's and 1940's than ISIS has in the past 10 years.

It was likely the single most murderous country/religion ever on the face of the earth. And the head of both the country and the religion was the Japanese emperor.

The emperor embodied not only the head of state. He was also the head of their religion, and their national symbol.

The best analogy I could make would be if the son of Hitler were still around, standing in front of a nazi swastika flag, holding the nazi staff with an iron eagle, then the US president would give that person a deep bow as a sign of respect.

Would you approve of that?

@BD66
Get over it. That was a long time ago. You sound like a religious fundie clinging to idiotic events from long ago. You need to let that go. Who cares, though I admit the Saudi King should receive a nuke up his 4th point of contact.

@dokala Look where this started. People are spun up because Trump didn't have a US flag lapel pin. He's not bowing to the son of a man responsible for 30,000,000 plus deaths.