The reasons were numbered and seemed to come in rapid succession.  First came the Hubris.  Abe, though a Japanese style blue blood from a dynastic political family, was philosophically removed from the thinking that prevailed war torn Japan at the end of the Second World War.  Like many younger Japanese also born far removed from the hardship that gripped the country after WWII, Abe found it difficult to understand why Japan should mute its nationalistic impulses and shy from the chest beating joys that non-economic based jingoistic pride could offer. He channeled the good will his ascension to the throne proffered him into calls for Nihon Power and openly questioned self-imposed limitations on building a strong military presence.  He championed the right of Japan to claim a big stick role on the world stage and set his sights squarely on revising the pacifist constitution that then United States General Dwight Eisenhower had foisted on the country nearly 60 years ago.      

The Rebirth of a Mighty Nation motif particularly true in light of the nation's already integral position in the present global hierarchy had Japan's neighbors on alert.  The nationalist talk referenced a time when the Japanese brand of Manifest Destiny swarmed the region and the memories weren't pleasant.  More disturbingly, Abe all but dismissed the existence of Comfort Women-- the thousands of Korean, Chinese and Filipino women that were forced into sexual slavery during Japan's imperialist era.  His inflammatory comments on the subject ripped the scab off a festering sore that has poisoned Japans relationship with the other nations of its region for over six decades.  Abe's clumsy demonstrations of nationalist pride polarized neighbors at a time when China threatens to supersede Japan for the go-to position in regional politics.  Instead of building national pride, Abe seemed bent on tearing it down by taking its geo-political relationships for granted.

Then came the Incompetence.  It was discovered that the government had misplaced the pension records of over 50 million Japanese workers.  In truth, the disappearance of the records occurred under the watch of Koizumi and had not come to light until the Abe age had dawned.  But given all of the discordant notes the Abe administration had been hitting, it was impossible to rationalize the sound of earned money running down the drain.  People from Hokkaido to Okinawa had something to say and the multi-voiced calls of incompetence resonated like nails raked across an old-school blackboard. Together they created a din simply too cacophonic to ignore.  Deaf ears not withstanding.

And that is when things got really ugly.  That is when things got really nasty, naughty ugly.  But though it was clear that the fall out from the lost pension records signaled the beginning of the end, there was still Scandal to come.  And come scandal came.  One by one, members of Abe's cabinet began resigning from their posts under various clouds of transgression and ineptitude.  The trend finally bottomed out this past July when Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, weighed down by hubris, scandal, incompetence and deaf ears, lost the upper house of Parliament.  The result was precariously akin to one party losing in a one party race. It was the Prime Minister losing to the Prime Minister.  Stripped of all swagger or swerve, Little Abe limped home.

With the most embarrassing electoral defeat in the country/s recent political history etched in sharpie-ink on his resume, it was clear that Abe had no chance of getting love from the Japanese public.  Half the country believed that the man should resign. Others believed worse.  Spanked and chided like a dollar-menu politician, Little Abe saw little option but to open the door for the return of his daddy's generation…his daddy's boys…his daddy's boy's ideas.  He restocked his cabinet with the species of bureaucratic dinosaur that roamed the Liberal Democratic Party landscape freely in the pre-Koizumi days and promised to shift his focus from national collar-popping to number-crunching.  He gave a policy speech that promised a new direction for his administration and patiently reaffirmed his commitment to correcting the wrongs that he once asserted were right.  Then, after all of the speeches and promises, Shinzo Abe resigned from his post as Prime Minister of Japan and checked into a hospital.  He was admitted due to stress.  Little Abe had called it quits. 

Despite all of the missteps he made, what Abe may have been most guilty of was having no clue as to what the people of Japan expected of him.  His fault was being out-of-touch.  Instead of maximizing newly developing opportunities for jump-starting the economy, he focused on uneasy themes of jingoism.  Instead of expanding the influential and popular standing that contemporary Japanese culture has established in the countries of its hemisphere, he reignited regional rivalries.  Abe failed to appeal to an older generation that vividly remembers the depression that followed WWII and hold true to the doctrine of supply and non-aggression that rebuilt their nation.  He also failed to reach out to a younger, more worldly generation that, despite the general popularity of the Elvis-impersonating Koizumi, remain mostly disinterested in politics and the salary men that fill its stables.  In the end, his deaf ears proved Abe to be more George Bush than Junichiro Koizumi, much to the dismay of people who looked to him for so much more.  But fortunately for Japan, Abe's time was brief.

Rest in Peace Lucky Dube. Millions of us love and respect you. Your passing was senseless and sad but you will live on.

These series of photographs depict the people of Cuba; intensely sensual and physical, yet colorful and affectionate.  Four years later, after photographing in many parts of the world, this series of work continues to be among my favorite produced. There is something to be said about the spirit of a place, combined with unyielding passion to unveil ones adventures. more

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