Word: nomura
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Kichisaburo's first fight, it happens, was in defense of the West. The day he wore his first pair of Occidental shoes the school bully razzed him. Nomura pulled off one shoe, beat the bully with it until the shoe was unwearable. But his thrifty mother had declared that the shoes must last six months, so for six months Kichisaburo clumped around in one western shoe, one Japanese clog...
...first cruise was to the U.S. His first gaff was in the Russo-Japanese War, when he joined the cruiser Saiyen as navigating officer and a few days later navigated her, despite the Imperial spyglasses, onto a mine. She sank, and most of the officers and crew with her. Nomura says of his survival: "Ship she go down; me I come up." The Navy made Navigator Nomura a diplomat. He served in Vienna and Berlin for a time, and during World War I was stationed in Washington as Naval Attache. There he made the acquaintance of Under Secretary...
...Shanghai hostilities of 1932, in which he commanded the Japanese forces. Here he lost his right eye, but not in battle. At a review in celebration of the Emperor's birthday a Korean patriot tossed a bomb into the grandstand. The grandstand blew up. Admiral Nomura was pocked but still alive. His first glass eye was presented to him by the Empress...
Every morning Ambassador Nomura gets up at seven and washes the glass eye he plans to wear that day. Then he reads the papers, studies reports, receives guests, often goes out to lunch, makes any necessary diplomatic calls, then indulges in his favorite pastime: "I am old man. I enjoy only driving. Around Washington, very nice. I think everywhere park. I went several times to Gettysburg. I go often to Mount Vernon, not only number one road, but here, there, and suburbs also...
...Admiral is a naval man and so not very literary. But once in a while he reads a book in the evening. His favorite is the military strategy of Sun Tzu, the Chinese Clausewitz. Sun Tzu's first precept is one that Kichisaburo Nomura especially relishes. Ironically, it is also often on the lips of China's Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. Also-and this is why Admiral Nomura's hopeful mission seems doomed to failure-it is the unspoken precept of the U.S. State Department. The Admiral's translation...