Word: kishi
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Puny Shield. At first blush this wave of war pride might be expected to help Premier Nobusuke Kishi's efforts to expand Japan's puny Self-Defense Forces (150,000 soldiers, 20,000 sailors, 15,000 airmen). But despite the fact that members of the Self-Defense Forces can quit the service almost any time, volunteers are few, and in March the government ruefully revealed that of 8,200 recruits accepted in 1957, only 60% had bothered to show up at a basic-training center. Clearly what is reviving in Japan is not so much militarism as simple...
...Tokyo airport Menzies shook hands with top-hatted Premier Kishi and his Cabinet, drove off in a gold-decorated black coach drawn by black horses, to lunch with the Emperor and Empress. (The first Australian parliamentarian to shake hands with Hirohito shortly after the war had been condemned in Australia for "a dastardly act.") Glowed the Japan Times: "Mister Menzies has proved himself a man of broad vision and deep understanding." But the Japanese soon found that mincing language is no part of Pig Iron Bob's equipment. Said Menzies: "I've come up here without any reservations...
Bidding Premier Kishi a cheery "Come down and see us some time," Pig Iron Bob started back to Canberra. "Most exhausting journey I have ever undertaken," he told reporters. "Hope I never have anything like that again." But there was wisdom in his genial candor. Said he, urging a study of Japan's need for foreign exchange: "The one great thing which could disturb the peace of the Pacific is to have a frustrated Japan...
...strongly reminiscent of Colonel Blimp, the U.S. State Department promptly asserted that Takaoka spoke for no one but himself and certainly not for the Japanese government. But Tokyo's Asahi Shim bun saw things differently. "The report," said Asahi, "is expected to build up public opinion behind Premier Kishi in his forthcoming talks in Washington. Kishi will certainly want to talk about Okinawa...
Playing the humble part of the kuro-maku-the faceless stagehand of Japanese drama who bustles about, manipulating scenery behind a black curtain in a supposedly invisible state-Kishi, in recent years, has been a potent force in Japanese postwar politics, a skillful, hardworking, practical politician with a rare skill in threading his way between the excessive views of opposing factions at home and abroad. "We are opening windows to both sides, so to speak," Kishi has said of Japan's relations with East and West, " instead of keeping one side closed as before." A Japanese patriot...