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newspaper representatives (who were part of the Japanese entourage)
to our campus in Texas. These men had spent two nights on the
Texas campus and enjoyed themselves immensely. They joined in on
a sing-a-long by our students.
On this Monday night in Tokyo our party, including my
daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Rader, and Mr. Gotoh, were the guests of
these Congressmen at an elaborate Japanese style dinner.
But the BIG DAY was Wednesday. About eleven in the
morning, we were driven to the House of Representatives office
building, where Mr. Bunsei Sato (no relation to the Prime Minister,
but a leader in the Diet), together with Mr. Keiwas Okuda, the
other Diet Member who had visited our Texas campus, joined us and
took us to the Japanese National Capitol Building.
There, Minister of Commerce and Industry Tanaka,
considered to be the probable next Prime Minister, excused himself
for about fifteen minutes from a very important conference, to meet
me. He invited me to have a longer meeting with him on my next
visit to Tokyo. I also met the Minister of Pollution (the official
title uses a different word), the Secretary of the leading
political party, and another top ranking Diet Member -- a Mr. Ishii
-- whom Messrs. Rader and Gotoh met at San Clemente, a graduate of
Stanford University, besides one or two other Diet Members. We had
lunch in the Diet Building restaurant.
Then, a fourth Diet Member, Mr. Shionoya, whose son is in
his second year at Ambassador College, Pasadena, joined us. And
these four leading men of the Japanese Government accompanied us to
the Prime Minister's official residence for my meeting with him.
Prime Minister Sato reminded me at the outset, that this
was a very historic occasion. When I first had a meeting with him,
in December, 1970, the newspaper headlines were blaring forth the
news of the great riot against American forces on Okinawa. The
Prime Minister had asked me to visit Okinawa, on my February 1971,
trip -- which I did, and wrote an article on my survey there in
The PLAIN TRUTH. The Prime Minister thanked me for the help I
had given, and reminded me that immediately following our meeting,
which was in his private office, he was to step into an adjoining
conference room where the U.S. Ambassador and staff were to
exchange the ratification instruments with the Japanese Foreign
Minister and staff, legally affirming the reversion of Okinawa back
to Japan. This was the big moment in Prime Minister Sato's
administration. We visited with him for some forty minutes,
leaving at ten minutes to three. As we left, the United States
Delegation were driving up. Their meeting was scheduled for three
o'clock. It was the BIG NEWS on front pages next morning.
However, I must say candidly to our own inner family,
general conditions in the world do not look good. They are
definitely NOT heading for peace. The social conditions -- the
way the vast majority of people live -- are simply revolting.
Most areas of the world's cities are ugly, depressing, reflecting
poverty, filth, and squalor.