Outgoing U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel speaks to reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, Jan. 10, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
TOKYO — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel in his outgoing remarks Friday defended U.S. forces abroad as “the thin blue line” and hinted at his further involvement in public life when he returns to the United States.
Emanuel was questioned at his final press conference by a reporter for Swiss TV about the “illusion” of U.S. alliances with Japan and NATO. The ambassador pushed back, pointing a finger for emphasis.
“In the last century, when Europe was fighting Europe, the United States was called upon, and young men, principally, lost their lives defending both not only the ideas of freedom and liberty but against violence and aggression,” Emanuel said.
“And number two, many people go to sleep at night around the world knowing that the United States is there, that it is on the front line,” he said. America’s “word and deed count.”
The U.S. is “the thin blue line” standing up to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, “an axis of autocrats,” he added.
Emanuel took questions for about an hour at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan as he prepares to step down from the post he’s held since March 2022. George Glass, an investment banker and former ambassador to Portugal, is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed him.
The often-outspoken Emanuel, previously an Illinois congressman, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff and mayor of Chicago, said he likely will continue in public service.
“I’m not planning on leaving the field of public discourse and public debate,” he said. “First of all, it would not come naturally to an Emanuel to be silent.”
In an Dec. 17 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, he wrote that the Democratic Party was “blind to the rising sea of disillusionment” that Trump, a Republican, rode to electoral victory.
Days earlier, Emanuel told the ABC-TV affiliate in Chicago that he’s not interested in leading his party, contrary to reports he was a possible candidate for that and other offices.
Emanuel said his goal in Tokyo had been to reimagine, reinvigorate and reenergize the U.S.-Japan alliance to meet future challenges and opportunities.
“Time will evaluate whether we have done that adequately,” he told reporters Friday. “You run a race, and you hand off the baton. I can say with some confidence that the U.S.-Japan alliance is better prepared than it was before.”
Military cooperation between the U.S., Japan and South Korea did not exist three years ago, Emanuel said. But when North Korea launched a missile recently, in real time, the three nations shared intelligence about it.
But South Korean President Yook Suk Yeol’s attempt in December to impose martial law, which lead to his impeachment, came as a surprise, Emanuel said. He predicted the three nations will continue their agreement.
“The real question is, will the trilateral thrive?” he said.
Meanwhile, Japan will join the U.S. and the Philippines in their annual Balikatan exercise this spring for the first time as a full partner, Emanuel added.
“Part of the entire strategy of China is to isolate a country in this region and use their full force and power to isolate that country and limit and restrict their sovereignty and independence,” he said. “When America’s allies are confident in the strength, power and commitment of the United States, the multitude of our numbers, the strength in numbers becomes apparent and then the isolated party is China.”
Emanuel said he would return to Japan in March to watch the Chicago Cubs play the Los Angeles Dodgers and two Japanese teams at the Tokyo Dome.
