일본인들은 한국이 미국의 동맹국 순위에서 낮다는 것을 조롱하면서

일본이 미국과 가깝다는 것을 은근히 자랑한다.

그러나 외국에서 일본을 어떻게 바라보고 있는지 깨닫는 것도 나쁘지는 않다.

영국은 미국의 Poodle이고,

일본은 미국의 spaniel(작은 사냥개)이다. 

한마디로, 일본은 미국이 키우는 개라는 뜻이다. 

 

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Japan may have regained its sovereignty in 1952, but the decision to dispatch Japanese troops to Iraq earlier this month has reminded many of its citizens just how little independence the country really has -- and just how much control the United States retains.

If British Prime Minister Tony Blair is President Bush"s poodle, then Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi is his cocker spaniel.

"We are still occupied by the American military," said an acquaintance of mine who is a former official of Japan"s Ministry of Education and now a university president. "We are a satellite. Our foreign policy revolves entirely around the wishes of Washington."

Like many other Japanese, he believes that Koizumi ordered Japan"s first military sortie into an active combat zone since World War II because he was too weak to stand up to President Bush.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/feb/18/opinion/oe-johnson18