So a couple days ago North Korea tested a nuclear bomb. This was not a surprise, and it took a while for the shock to really hit me. I feel that because I spent five years learning Japanese and lived in Japan, I feel more concerned about the security situation in Northeast Asia than the majority of Americans. I remember the sense of indignation I felt while living in Japan at North Korea's abduction of Japanese civilians in the 1970's and at Japan's powerlessness in the face of North Korea's intransigence, my frustration at Japan's obsession with the abductions to the exclusion of the nuclear issue, and above all my anger at the Bush Administration's obsession with the Middle East and general lack of interest in dealing properly with the North Korea's nuclear development. Over the course of Sunday evening and Monday I think the proper sense of shock didn't hit me, until I watched NHK News 7 at 11:30 PM on Channel 26. There was the North Korean news announcer shouting at the camera with revolutionary fervor, there was Prime Minister Abe's voice trembling (this from the man who was known as an advocate of preemptive strikes on North Korea!), there was a 76-year-old hibakusha saying how clearly she remembered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and how angry she was to hear the news. The news ended with a serene shot of the Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo, with the comment that tomorrow Abe would call Bush for advice. How reassuring. Yes, this is very bad.

It's easy to be angry at the North Korean government's megalomania and paranoia. It's easy to remember the things I saw on Japanese television but not on American television--the North Korean rallies seen up close, with full sound and the chants subtitled, the KCNA broadcasts subtitled not dubbed so you can hear the newscaster shouting at the camera. The fact is that Americans don't really care about North Korea, and neither did the Bush Administration. Perhaps rewarding bad behavior for several years would have ultimately led to the same situation, but it would have bought North Korea's neighbors a few more years of time. Bush's labeling of North Korea as evil, his invasion of Iraq justified by weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist, and his insistence on no direct talks with North Korea only gave Kim Jong Il and his military more justification to proceed with a nuclear weapons program to protect itself before America could invade. The six party talks were a way that America could look busy while avoiding actually addressing the problem. Including Japan was only counterproductive because of Pyongyang's hatred of its former colonial ruler, Russia was useless, and it was left to China to pressure North Korea so that the US could avoid talking with an "evil" regime.

Kim Jong Il is evil, and probably irrational to some degree, but the Bush Administration's obession with Saddam Hussein and its total ignorance of the real WMD threat it knew existed is sadly symptomatic of its general incompetence at addressing things that matter. Now it's left to the governments of Northeast Asia to manage the aftermath and the billion people of the region to suffer whatever consequences may ensue. 何を言ったらふさわしいか分からないけど、日本でみんな大丈夫であるのを祈っています（I'm not quite sure what to say in this situation, but I hope everyone's alright in Japan）.

If there's any hope for sensibility it's been shown by China and Japan recently, China in condemning the tests even in its state-controlled media, and Japan in Shinzo Abe's recent statement that Japan will categorically not develop nuclear weapons in response. A Japanese nuclear weapons program would be one of the worst things that could happen in destabilizing the situation, because it's the one country in the region that Pyongyang truly hates. I hope also that whatever further sanctions Japan introduces do not further inconvenience the considerable population of North Korean citizens who live in Japan (they are all second or third-generation Japanese residents of course--such is the absurdity of Japanese citizenship law that they are North Korean citizens even though their ancestors were taken to Japan before the DPRK even existed). I fear that may be hoping for too much.