ABSTRACT
In early 2010, a senior United States military commander on a visit to Japan sat down with a Japanese defense reporter for an on-the-record interview. One of the questions asked concerned the U.S. commitment to defend the Senkaku Islands, which are administered by Japan but also claimed by the China and Taiwan. The three-star general stumbled, a State Department-assigned Political Advisor (POLAD), who seemed unprepared to discuss the topic and a U.S. Embassy official gave incorrect and mixed advice, and the interview immediately went downhill.1
