Pleading for calm since 1879

From Donald Keen’s Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912:

President Ulysses S. Grant was the first former president to visit Japan, which he did in 1879. He met with the Meiji Emperor and advised him on a number of matters and was also asked to arbitrate a dispute. The Meiji government had just annexed the Ryukyu Islands [Okinawa], to which China strongly objected. Grant decided that Japan’s claim to the islands was stronger and ruled in Japan’s favor, but also urged Japan and China to withdraw their harsh words about each other.

I can’t help but think that little has changed…