Former CNN bureau chief visits IU

A panel of experts held a "roundtable discussion" in the law school's Moot Court Room Monday, discussing issues from the Bush administration to the American consciousness of foreign news.\nThe keynote speaker was Rebecca MacKinnon, former Tokyo bureau chief for CNN. Other panelists included political science professor Greg Kasza and law professor Joe Hoffman. George Wilson, professor emeritus of East Asian Languages and Cultures, moderated the dialogue.\nJapan recently deployed 550 non-combat soldiers to Iraq. The deployment marks the first time Japan has sent soldiers into a combat zone since World War II, MacKinnon said.\nThe discussion focused on Japanese interests in changing their constitution, which was written by American officials after World War II. In particular, Article IX of Japan's constitution, which states the country is not allowed to have an active military, has been the center of debate in Japan's approach to foreign policy.\n"The constitution of Japan is what the government wants it to be," Kasza said. "The court is not allowed to rule on it. So the issue of Article IX is a political one, not a legal one."\nMacKinnon told stories about meetings with government officials. She said when she spoke with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in 2002, he gave the usual cookie-cutter official line that the U.S. encourages Japan to engage in democratic activity, such as amending or writing a new constitution. But off-camera, MacKinnon said, Armitage told a different story.\n"I thought it would be a good idea for Japan to have a foreign relations committee talking to their neighbors, letting them know why they're making the changes they're making," MacKinnon said. "But he said 'I don't think we would want that because a certain country would have too much power,' referring, of course, to China."\nThe official topic for the discussion was "The role of Japan in the War on Terrorism." Panel members spoke candidly of their feelings about the War on Terrorism, most notably Kasza, who got the attention of audience members with scathing critique of the Bush administration.\n"The so-called 'War on Terrorism' is a great example of the Bush administration's Orwellian debasement of political discourse in the U.S.," Kasza said. "I have no clue what these people mean by terrorism. We have killed roughly 10,000 Iraqi soldiers and about 7,000 Iraqi civilians. I suppose this ten-to-seven ratio is still compatible with freedom fighting."\nHoffman also expressed concern regarding American foreign policy, saying the U.S. may be meddling in Japanese affairs too often.\n"Maybe the message is we ought to stay out of there completely," Hoffman said. "Perhaps Japan could feel it is a respectable, autonomous, equal partner in the world if the U.S. would just leave them alone for a while."\nWhile these issues are continually debated by panel members, MacKinnon addressed concerns that the average American citizen has little or no knowledge of foreign affairs, especially in Asia. \n"What alarms me is that since 9-11, the gap between the way Americans view the world and the way the rest of the world views the world has widened," MacKinnon said. \nSpecifically, MacKinnon said when she was bureau chief in Tokyo her stories ran constantly on CNN International, but rarely saw the light of day in the U.S. \n"The stories they did show in the U.S. were usually 'fluffy' stories that portrayed the people as 'those kooky Japanese,'" she said.\n-- Conctact staff writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.