Not only did Barack Obama make history being elected the first African-American U.S. president, winning 53 percent of the popular vote, including the battleground states of Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio, but history was made as well in an ancient port on the Japan Sea coast, just north of Kyoto, where there is a town called ``Obama'', as reported by a number of news sources over the last few days. 
        According to William Marotti, Professor at the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies at UCLA, ``Obama'' means ``little seashore" or "small beach."  The "bama" part is like the "hama" of "Yokohama," meaning seashore, with the "o" meaning little, and transforming the "h" to a "b."
         In other words, it’s a mere coincidence the words sound alike. 
        Nonetheless, the town was absolutely euphoric when learning of Obama’s historic win, as seen in this You Tube video. 
        The mayor of Obama, Otojirō Uratani, even sent some ``meibutsu’’ to the Democratic candidate, prompting Obama to return the kindness with a thank-you note.
        A little background about Obama: In the Edo period (1603-1867), Obama was the castle-town headquarters of a middling daimyo domain, as well as a prosperous port. Today, Ronald P. Toby, Professor of History at the University of Illinois, tells me, it's ``merely one of many middle-sized provincial towns.’’
         Michael Wert, Professor of Modern Japan at Marquette University, meanwhile, informs me Obama, a city in a prefecture called Fukui along the West coast, was the site where many years ago a Japanese citizen was abducted by North Korean agents.
        This historical footnote alone might offer a glimpse how receptive the Japanese really will be to an Obama administration despite the jubilation in the middle-sized provincial town in Japan.
        Typically, the ``Japanese tend to be wary of Democratic administrations, and much prefer the Republicans’’, according to Sheldon Garon, Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University.
        In addition, Japanese, particularly the conservative elements in the Japanese Diet, Professor Wert cautions, might equate Obama or a Democratic administration as being soft on North Korea due to their long history of abducting Japanese citizens, an issue that was raised by John McCain when President Bush took North Korea off the terrorist list.
        Overall, however, despite strained relations over North Korea and fears of trade friction with an Obama administration as happened during the Clinton years, the consensus seems to indicate most Japanese overwhelming will be friendlier to an Obama administration than has been the case in recent years.
        `` I think Obama has a good chance of getting the support of the millions here who energetically opposed the Iraq war, Professor Marotti wrote me in an email. ``But the government always goes with America's wishes, at least strategically.’’
        As an indication how similar Obama the town and Obama the President-elect are, just consider this: Barack Obama wants to ``spread the wealth’’, while Obama the town likes to spread their goods. There is every reason to believe, for example, that Gov. Sarah Palin’s glasses were made in the Fukui Prefecture, according to Ellis Krauss, Professor from the School of International Relations & Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

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East Meets West
        During the campaign, a Japanese comedian who looks like Obama caught up to him while campaigning in Chicago and got close enough to shake hands with the future president.

-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net