Washington Journal., 1943-05-07
LII.

Richard Washburn, Bob Dunn, Jim Hare,
Jack London and Frederick Palmer were al
ready in Japan and many others were under
way. Each of them had special plans and
wanted particular privileges from the Japa-
nese army or navy. Lloyd, as our minister
plenipotentiary, so they hoped, would get such
privileges for them.
LLOYD told me with dismay that he had re-
ceived a calblegram from Dick Davis re-
q~uesting him to arrange for a newspaper
interview with the Mikado Immediately on
Davis imminent arrival at Tokyo, whence
Dick meant to depart at once for the nearest
front.
Wistfully Lloyd remarked: "Dick doesn't
understand. Emperor Mutsuhito never yet
has given a newspaper interview, and | doubt
that he ever will. Dick doesn't realize how
the Japanese people feel toward their Elm
peror. His throne is hedged about with more
lreverential than that of any other
monarch. Apart from members OF the I'M
perial household, none but princes, his cabl-
met ministers, highest generals or admlrals,
and chiefs of foreign embassies or legations
have access to his august person. The one
Interview | had with His Majesty was when
| presented my credentials. That lasted only
a few minutes. The Emperor merely muttered
a few words, gave me a limp hand, and there
with dismissed me. | had to bow three times
DIS l. dDDIOdCucu Hill WnClC III oOOOO LII A4AO
thu one room, and then three times again as
| moved away from him toward the door.
Gas for Dick Davis, he should not have
put the word 'Mikado' in his cablegram. No
body here calls Mutsuhito the sMikado'. In
conversation with us foreigners the Japanese
always call him His Majesty, the Emperor
Indeed Dick should not have mentioned him
at all in an open cablegram. The Emperor
is too august for such mentioning
Before Dick Davis arrives here, unused
Lloyd, II feel like ducking the embarrass-
ment of his inevitable disappointment at
getting no chance to beard the Emperor in
his palace, by taking myself off to the hills
for a vacation at Lake Chuzenji near Mike.
BY the time | come back to Tokyo, after he
shall have spent a few weeks at the Imperial
Hotel, he may have got acclimatlzed enough
tic find his bearings
Lloyd kindly offered to introduce me to
the Foreign Minister, Baron Jusaro Komura,
a fellow Harvard man. This would be neces-
sary, he explained, before | could be ac-
credited to the japanese General Staff as a
war correspondent. It might be well also
for me to meet Count faro Katsura, the
Prime Minister, whom he described as a
lively and enlightened statesman.
Loyd's Japanese Friends
While mentioning japanese gentlemen ac-
49,.
cessible to Americans and other western vlsl-
tors, Lloyd spoke Of his college friend Hisaya
Iwasaki, the chief of the great commercial
house Of Mitsubishi. Recalling our boyhood
escapade on the Delaware, when we threw
our clothes into the river, he told me about
a similar episode between him and lwasakl
some twelve years back in Norway.
1t happened when Lloyd, Immediately after
graduation from the University Of Pennsyl-
vania, was making his grand tour Of Europe.
His fellow student Iwasaki, whom he under
stood to be an impoverished lad, at the same
time was returning to Japan by way Of
Europe. Lloyd found his Japanese fellow
student in a stuffy little cabin below decks
and insisted on him sharing his upper deck
suite with him. So it came that they agreed
to travel together through Scandinavia after
leaving England. From Christiania they
went northward in c~arioles until they reached
a little railroad winding through the noun
tains to Trondhjem. AS their train crawled
+ rough tunnels and over dizzy trestle bridges
they succumbed to the temptation of finging
useless contents of their picnic basket through
the open car windows into the deep gorges
aid ravines below.
First Lloyd threw an empty bottle, cram
ing his neck out the window to hear the glass
crash on the rocks. Then Iwasaki threw an
other empty bottle. Next they threw cups
dishes, knives, spoons and forks. AT
last nothing was left in the basket but Iva
saki's private flask. Jokingly Lloyd seized
ii and dangled it out the window. Iwasaki
suddenly grew serious. Enchanting ssyou
must not touch that, | prize it, he tried to
recover his flask. But Lloyd tauntingly
snatched it from his reach and flung it down
the gorge.
Thereat Iwasak's face flushed a deep red.
Instead Of saying anything he silently took