AN EARLIER ADMINISTRATION DIDN’T APOLOGIZE TO JAPAN…..EXCELLENT LETTER TO THE WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444709004577651852035683474.html?KEYWORDS=AN+EARLIER+ADMINISTRATION+DIDN%27T+APOLOGIZE+TO+JAPAN
Regarding your editorial “The New World Disorder” (Sept. 13): As the Romney campaign and the White House bicker over whether an apology was made over the cause of the tragic attacks on the U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya, it’s worth noting that the current situation isn’t entirely unprecedented.
In 1936, Vanity Fair published a cartoon lampooning Japan’s Emperor Hirohito. In a gallery of unlikely historical situations, the mikado was shown dressed in uniform, pulling a cart containing the Nobel Peace Prize. It was considered an outrageous insult because it suggested that the Emperor wasn’t Peace Prize material and depicted the divine emperor as a coolie.
The Japanese government banned the sale of the magazine in its empire and demanded an apology. During a meeting with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Amb. Hiroshi Saito seemed satisfied with the secretary’s regret over the incident. But an apology was not offered. The misunderstanding was unfortunate but the secretary would not speak to the merits of the cartoon. In a telegram to the American Embassy in Tokyo, Hull advised: “For your information and guidance. Department considers the caricature . . . not repeat not offensive.”
He reaffirmed his position that he was sorry for how the cartoon was received but not for the cartoon itself in another telegram, this time to American missions in China: “For your particular information: any reports which may affirm that the Secretary made [an] apology or any statement tantamount thereto are contrary to fact.” Hull rightly realized that apologizing for someone’s exercise of free speech was out of the question, regardless of the expression’s tenor or tone.
Craig Gropper
La Canada, Calif.
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