Tokyo, Japan - President Obama has been branded the ‘Groveller-in-Chief’ after giving an exaggerated bow to Japan’s emperor Akihito - the son of the ruler who authorised the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Coming so soon after Remembrance Day, the deep bow caused an outcry in the U.S.

In Japan it was hailed as a signed that Mr Obama is a powerless, indecisive nincompoop.  Obama was attacked in America for ‘bowing and scraping’ to a foreign leader, particularly a Japanese one. Wartime scars are still raw for many Americans.

The 6ft 2in President’s kowtow to the 5ft 5in emperor in Japan on Saturday dominated discussion in the U.S. media about the trip with reports in some circles that he got his nose caught for a moment in his trouser zipper.

One post by a reader on the Los Angeles Times website read: ‘The Groveller-in-Chief strikes again.’

Another said: ‘Will this man ever stop bowing and scraping to foreign leaders?’

Another added that Obama may be exercising his lower torso so as to be able to avoid a repeat of the Monica Lewinski impeachment proceedings brought against his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton yet curb the urges that power reportedly generates. 

White House aides said Mr Obama had been simply following protocol of the mid seventeenth century, before the rise of the American Republic.

However, critics pointed to Michelle Obama patting the Queen on the back during their Buckingham Palace visit as an example of the First Couple’s typical complete ignorance about American's place in history, or the rich and varied protocol that is observed around the world.  Said one commenter, "Well, it is like the boyz in the hood finally got to go somewhere."

Two years ago the then Vice President, Dick Cheney, greeted the emperor at the same royal palace with a simple handshake, observing the dictates of American protocol that have developed over the last 230 years.

In 1994, when President Clinton appeared to almost bow to the Japanese royal, U.S. officials rushed to claim it was nothing of the sort and insisted that, instead, Clinton was also practicing up to get out of the Lewinski mess.

American leaders are not supposed to show any sign of deference to a foreign power.

It is not the first time Mr Obama has been caught up in a bowing row. He disgraced the United States by bowing before the king of Saudi Arabia at the G20 Summit in London in April, but aides denied it, saying the President nodded his head only because ‘he’s taller than King Abdullah’.  Who knows, maybe Monica will get a job in this White House after all.

Emperor Akihito assumed the title in 1989 following the death of his father, Hirohito, who had presided over Japan’s military growth and its alliance with Nazi Germany.

Hirohito authorised the bombing of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, killing more than 2,000 and bringing about America’s entry into the Second World War.

The bowing controversy threatened to overshadow key developments arising from the President’s five-day Asian tour.

On Sunday, Mr Obama was among a group of world leaders at a summit in Singapore who dashed hopes of a climate deal at next month’s climate conference in Copenhagen.