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afternoon we were guests for tea with
Prince Mikasa at bis new palace -
one of four or five palaces of the
Imperial family on the very large Im–
perial Palace grounds. The prince is
the younger brother of the Emperor.
On a previous visit to Tokyo
I
had
had a 4.5-minute meet ing with Crown
Prince Akihito at
his
palace.
1
have
come to know Prince Mikasa quite
well.
1
first met him in late October,
1968, when
1
was invited to be his
guest at Iuncheon.
1
have seen qu ite
a lot of bim since then.
The Prince is deeply interested in
history, and in educational and cul–
tural relations between Japan aod tbe
Wcst, and Middle East. He is inter–
ested in our archaeological project
with Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
While we were sipping tea, the
Prince expressed the wish that there
might be established in Tokyo an in–
stitute for the study of Biblical his–
tory - in order that people of the
East would better understand the peo–
ples of the West and the Middle
East, and their cultu res. He made that
comment since Western culture devel–
oped largely from Christianity and
Judaism, whicb he regards as the
very foundations of Western civiliza–
tion. His idea was that such an in–
stitute would provide a place where
Japanese and Eastern peoples could
study without going to a church or
syoagogue or p lace of religion. The
institute, of course, would need to be
provided with an adequate library of
books on Western culture, including
Bibles, Bible encyclopedias, Bible dic–
tionaries, Jexicons for both Hebrew–
and Greek-Japanese, Hebrew- and
Greek-English, and otber languages,
concordances, commentaries, etc. All
these Bibles and other books would
need to be not only in both Japanese
and English, but also such other
languages as the need required.
T he Prince felt there would be a
considerable interest in such a proj–
ect, if some one would take the initia–
tive to start it.
1 grasped the significance of his idea,
PLAIN TRUTH Moy 1972
and replied, "Sorne one just did! 1 did !
Ambassador College will be very hap–
py to initiate such a program, especial–
ly providing the library."
1
asked if it
would not be proper
to
have the Arn–
bassador College name connected with
the institute, and he replied in the
affi rmative.
I
feel that what may be–
come a much-used institute for Bible
study in Japan may have been initiated
at that meeting. Later, in my meeting
with Prime Minister Sato,
I
told the
Prime Minister of tbe Prince's idea,
aod my decision to initiate it. The
Prime Minister warmly approved the
idea, and directed one of the leading
members of the Diet, who accom–
panied me at that meeting, to check
to find out whether some of the funds
for this project could be supplied by
the Goveroment, from the Educational
budget.
With the endorsement and financia!
assis~nce
from the Government, and
having originated as the idea of a
member of the Imperial family, this
project could not have gotten going
with a more prestigious start.
We did not have time to return to
our hotel on leaving the Prince's
palace, but were driven at once to a
dinner engagement, where we were
guests of two high-ranking mernbers
of the Japanese Diet (their congress
or parliament). These two had flown
with Prime Minister Sato to San
Clemente, California, the West Coast
summer "White House," where the
Prime Minister conferred with Presi–
dent Nixon. On tha t trip to the
U. S. the Prime Minister had set
an appointment for a meeting with
me, while at San Clemente last
January. It happened that I was
quite ill at the time - with a tem–
perature near
104 -
and so
1
sent
Messrs. Rader and Gotoh to represent
me.
At their meeting, Prime Minister
Sato rec¡uested that we fly these two
Congressmen, the secretary of one of
them, aod eight leading members of
the Japanese press to our Texas cam–
pus, which we did . They were on tbe
Texas campus two nights and part of
three days. From all reports, tbey had
the time of their lives. Tbey bought
wide-brimmed cowboy hats and Texas
boots. They enjoyed a "sing-along"
with the students one night, and in–
spected our experimental farm pro–
gram. We have more than
4,000
acres
at the Texas campus.
These Congressmen invited us to
visit the Japanese Diet on Wednesday
morning, and set up an appointment
for me to meet Mr. Kakuei Tanaka,
the Minister of International Trade
and Industry - one of the two most
important ministries.
This was the
HJGH POINT
day of
our vis it to Japan, for we bad a meet–
ing set with the Prime Minister for
2
p.m. At
11 :30,
as scheduled, we
were escorted by these Congressmen
to the Diet Building.
It
is the Japan–
ese Capitel building. Externally it
does not appear as large as the United
States Capitol in Washington - but
walking through the labyrinth of cor–
ridors inside, it seemed as large or
larger.
We were first taken to a special
meeting room.
W
e were greeted lirst
by the Secretary of the Cabinet, Mr.
Takeshita, while waiting for
Mr.
Tanaka. Three large lounge chairs at
the rear of the room faced se\' eral
other chairs arouod the room. A table
was placed in front of the three chairs.
Mr. Tanaka at the moment was in the
Diet chambers engaged in an import–
ant session. Nevertheless, he excused
himself for about ten minutes from
this session, and carne to the room
into which we had been ushered. He
greeted me smilingly, and also Mr.
Rader and
Mr.
Gotoh, whom he had
met at San Clemente. Smiling, he
motioned me into the center seat of
the three at the end, explaining that
it was the Prime Mioister's seat, when–
ever the Prime Minister was attending
a conference in this room. Numerous
photographs were taken of Minister
Tanaka and me by official Diet
cameramen.
Mr.
Taoaka told us that any and
all official reports of his Ministry
would be available to us. Since he
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