As President Joe Biden’s Air Force One landed in Japan Wednesday for a carefully planned G7 summit, he had a world of problems on his mind:
Tensions with China. Russia’s war on Ukraine. The global economy’s 21st century problems. And the political and real world economic hell he had to rush home to: Washington’s run-amok juvenile sandbox politics that could force his world-leading economy to shamefully default itself, any day now. With the whole world watching.
Watching Biden in Japan, I recalled a bizarre, made-for-TV muck-up I witnessed the first time any U.S. president visited Japan. And I remembered the lesson it taught (that our leaders keep forgetting): Careful planning never guarantees that things will go according to plan.
It happened in November 1974. President Gerald Ford flew to Japan with a seemingly flawless plan – just spread a peace-through-friendship message and forge a strongest-ever trade partnership with Asia’s emerging economic power.
What could go wrong?
Ford’s centerpiece would be a televised speech to the people of Japan. Ford had come of age fixated on Japan. The bombing of Pearl Harbor led him to quit his job as a young Grand Rapids, Michigan, attorney, join the Navy and rush to war against Japan.
Now, on Nov. 20, 1974, Ford would speak to all of Japan in a televised lunch hour address. The White House press corps was herded into the Japan Press Club to cover Ford’s speech there – with one exception: Newsday’s Washington bureau chief. I wanted to watch Ford’s speech alongside ordinary Japanese people. So I went to the tall, white Sony headquarters building in downtown Tokyo. Surely Sony would have TV screens in its lobby.
Would people on their lunch break stop to watch America’s first visiting president speak? Or just walk by, uncaring?
Bingo. Sony’s lobby had a wall of TV screens. People were hurrying to lunch – but 28 stopped, watched, listened intently to the nine color TV sets on the bottom row that were tuned to Channel 1, where America’s president began speaking to Japan’s people:
“Together we removed the legacies of World War II…. Americans and Japanese know the value of peace.… We do not want to send our sons into battle again….”
Suddenly, people’s attention was diverted to nine other TV screens on the top row that were tuned to Channel 12. As Ford’s words of peace echoed from the bottom row, they saw a vivid film of Japanese warplanes relentlessly bombing a harbor filled with warships. And they heard history’s infamous code words:
“Tora! Tora! Tora!”
It meant “tiger” but also “lightning attack.” And as Ford talked of “peace” and “friendship” on the bottom row of TVs, the top row screens glowed with bright orange balls of flame. Direct hits on Pearl Harbor. (Japanese lettering on the top screens said this was a special preview of the iconic 1970 joint U.S. and Japanese film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” the tale of Pearl Harbor, told from both sides, now coming to theaters in Japan.) Meanwhile, former U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Ford was speaking on the bottom row TVs:
“I believe that we are not just temporary allies; we are permanent friends. We share the same goals – peace, development, stability, and prosperity.”
The 28 people in the lobby, who had hopefully called this the start of a grand new era, were stunned, quietly embarrassed by the brain-boggling juxtaposition. Apparently the irony was also noticed in the high corner offices. A uniformed Sony security guard came over as I was interviewing and walked me a few steps away to ask a meaningless question. I let the kabuki play on. The moment my back was turned, another uniformed guard turned off the top row of TVs. Finally Ford was alone on Sony’s stage.
Fast-forward: When President Biden landed in Japan, White House correspondents bombarded the figurehead of the global economy with shouted questions that had nothing to do with the G-7 summit. They were asking about the politically irresponsible econo-hell he had to rush home to. House Republicans were still refusing to raise the debt limit – as they routinely did for Republican presidents – unless Biden’s Democrats agreed to drastic cuts and work requirements for aid to needy Americans. No freeloading on luxuries such as food, housing and even Medicaid.
Never mind that the debt limit isn’t about future spending. It’s about America keeping its promise and paying its old debts – deficits created significantly by the revenue shortfall from Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, plus wealthy corporations that pay no taxes.
Biden had firmly controlled just one thing in all this. He controlled the timing of the economic orange ball of flames that is now enveloping him at the global economic summit – showcasing his lack of control at the worst moment. With the whole world watching.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
