Late starter Kennedy welcomed as Japan’s US ambassador

TOKYO: Caroline Kennedy, daughter of slain US President John F Kennedy, arrived in Japan yesterday to take up her first high-profile job in public office, making a late start to a political career for which her family is renowned.

Kennedy, sworn in as US ambassador two days ago, received a warm welcome at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, smiling and waving at reporters and carrying a bouquet of flowers.

The 55-year-old lawyer takes up the post a week before the 50th anniversary of her father’s assassination.

Kennedy, the first woman US ambassador to Japan, was an early and prominent supporter of Barack Obama in his quest for the presidency in 2008, and campaigned for him.

“I bring greetings from President Obama… I am honoured to represent him as the United States ambassador,” she said. “I am also proud to carry forward my father’s legacy of public service.”

Kennedy worked briefly for education authorities in New York, and contemplated, but later abandoned, a run for a New York Senate seat in 2009.

In a video greeting to the people of Japan released on the internet on Wednesday, Kennedy said she had studied Japanese art and history, and made several trips to Japan, including a visit to Hiroshima – where the first atomic bomb was dropped – when she was 20.

“It left me with a profound desire to work for a better, more peaceful world,” she said, adding that she had also visited Japan on her honeymoon.

Though Caroline’s father visited Japan once in 1951, he never visited the country in the nearly three years that he was president, a sharp contrast to the present, when most presi- dents visit within months of taking office.

Despite this, President Kennedy was popular, his youth appealing to an economically booming Japan as it prepared to host the Summer Olympic Games in 1964.

A state visit was planned for January 1964, and an advance team, including then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk, was in the air en route to Tokyo for talks when Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The plane turned around in mid-Pacific and headed back.

Japan welcomed Kennedy’s nomination since they felt her closeness to Obama would be an advantage.

“The Japanese people feel closest to her father of all presidents, and in that sense I’d like to offer my hearty welcome,” said cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga yesterday. – Reuters

Renamo kills 10

MAPUTO: Suspected Renamo ex-rebels ambushed a convoy of cars yesterday killing one person and wounding 10 along a key highway in the latest of low-intensity attacks gripping Mozambique, state radio said. The attack happened between Muxungue and the Save River, according to Radio Mozambique. It is the latest in a wave of attacks by ex-rebels in central Mozambique, and other parts of the country, and comes just days ahead of local government elections scheduled for Wednesday.