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needed to return to the Diet session,
he said
I
would be welcomed to visit
with him for a longer period of time
on my next visit to Japan.
At San Clemente, Mini ster Tanaka
had participated with Prime Minister
Sato in meetings with President Ni.xon.
Al so he had held important economi c
meetings with Secretary of the Trea–
sury Connally.
Leaving the meeting with Minister
Tanaka,
1
was introduced to the
Secretary of the Liberal-Democratic
Party, Ohera - a former foreign min–
ister, and one of the most powerful
mcmbers of the Japanese Govcrnment.
We were then taken to lunch in the
Diet dining room, where
1
met the
Minister of Environmental Control,
and several othc r Congressmen.
After lunch we were driven to the
Congressmen's Office Building, where
we met severa! other Diet members
- including one whose son is now
in his second yea r as a student at
our Ambassador College campus in
Pasadena.
My appointment with the Prime
Minister was set for
2
p.m. We were
accompanied by four high-ranking
members of the Japanese law-making
body to the Prime Mini stcr's official
residence. Threc of those had accom–
panied the Prime Minister to the
meeting with President Nixon at San
Clemente. The fourth was the father
of our Ambassador College student.
As on my previous meeting with the
Prime Minister, in December
1970,
we wcre shown, first, into the Prime
Minister's reception room which ad–
joins his prívate office. There we were
introduced to a young Japanese inter–
preter, a very pcrsonable and brilliant
young man, f rom the Foreign Mini s–
try's office. Although Mr. Sato speaks
English, in a meeting he prefers to
have his interpreter repeat in Japanese
what he hears me say in English.
When he talks to
me,
most of the
time
he
speaks in Japanese, and the
interpreter repeats it in English to me.
We did not use the interpreter, how–
ever, until we were seated in his
prívate office.
48
We only had to wait a couple of
minutes in the reception room. Then
Prime Ministcr Eisaku Sato entered,
with an except ionally warm and smi l–
ing g reeting aod handshake. He said
he was happy to see me again, and
was sorry
T
was unable to meet him at
San Clemente. Of course
I
expressed
regret at being unable to meet him
then. As on my previous visit ofTicial
photographers recorded our greetings
and handshake.
Then, as before, we all walked into
his prívate office. He sat facing the
group of us - the fou r Congressmcn,
Mr.
Rader and Mr. Gotoh, and the
interpreter.
1
was seated oext to the
Prime Minister on one side, and the
interpreter next to him on the other
side.
Jmmediately Mr. Sato opened the
conversation, saying that this was,
indeed, a historie occasion. At my
former meeting with him,
15
months
before, newspaper hcadlines were
blaring forth the news of the anti–
American riots on Okinawa. At that
meeting the Prime Minister had sug–
gested that
I
go to Okina\va on my
next visit in February (the situation
in Okinawa was too hot and tense to
be safe for me to have gone imme–
diately), and investigate cond itions
there for myself - talking with the
people, with both U. S. and Japanese
officials - and report to the Ameri–
can people in
The
PLAIN TRUTH -
which, of course,
I
did. So my former
meeting with M r. Sato was tied to the
Okinawan sihtation at a time when
the Prime Minister was exerting every
effort to have Okinawa returned to
Japan.
Jt
had been under the govern–
ment
of
the United States ever since
World War
JI.
Now, the Prime Minister reminded
me, with a smile of victory,
thiJ
meet–
ing happened to be timed at the
precise time of the official reversion
of Okinawa back to Japan.
It
wa~
now shortly after
2
p.m. March
15.
At the end of our meeting -
3
p.m.,
the oflicial meeting was to take place,
in an adjoining conference room,
where the exchange of the ratification
instruments of the Okinawa reversion
was to be made.
This was undoubtedly thc very
HJGII
POINT of Mr. Sato's eight years as
Prime Minister of Japan. He said that
U. S. Ambassador Meyer and staff,
and also Jal)anese Foreign Minister
Fukuda and staff, would be arriving
momentarily. So our meeting was
a sort of prelude to this historie
ceremony.
The Prime Minister thanked me for
my
contribution toward the Okinawan
rC\'Crsion, now successfully achieved.
Of course my contribution, if any,
was insignificant so far as influencing
the result - but it was nice to know
the Prime Minister was pleased.
Mr. Sato expressed great satisfaction
with the agreement bctween the
United $tates and Japan. He told me
emphatically that President Nixon had
promised, at San Clemente, that there
\\Ould be no nuclear weapons or
poison gas on the United States bases
which will remain on Okinawa.
I
reminded the Prime Minister that
Dr. Ohama had been with me in Oki–
nawa, and that he and his wife had
been our guests at both the Pasadena
and Texas campuses during the past
year.
Mr.
Sato then told me that Dr.
Ohama is Chairman of the Preparatory
Committee of the World Marine Fair
which will be held at Okinawa dur–
ing the coming ycar, and he invited
any ideas or assistaoce
J
might have
in making the fair a success.
thcn invited the Prime Minister
and his wife to visit us at Pasadena
and Texas, after he has retired from
oflice. He expressed interest in such
n
visit, and said his wifc's cousin is
living in S.1n Antonio, Texas - and
that he had visited San Antonio and
El Paso in
1933.
As
I
have already mentioned,
1
told
thc Prime Minister about Prince
Mikasa's idea of establishing in
Tol-]'0
an institute for the study of Biblical
history, as a means of bringing better
understanding between the peoples
of the East and of the
West.
Mr.
PLAIN
TRUTH May 1972