John Baylor's Blog: May 23

 Digging U.S. foreign policy 
What`s happening here is no longer new, but is no less astonishing.

Two Husker volleyball players in central Japan lead 20 little Japanese girls in games and volleyball drills.  Twenty beaming smiles surround Christina Houghtelling and Rachel Schwartz.

Two generations ago the Emperor attacked Pearl Harbor.  The United States retaliated by bombing Tokyo, Osaka, and countless other Japanese targets.

Brave American soldiers endured grisly combat in Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other Pacific Islands.  Distrust even led the U.S. government to round up thousands of Americans of Japanese descent in California camps.

Now in May 2006, Christina and Rachel lead the children in intricate races and games of tag.  The girls explode with laughter, none able to speak the others` language, yet thrilled by the shared humanity. 

The volleyball drills begin; the coach wants the two Huskers to push his team more.  Christina and Rachel oblige.  The 20 girls dig remarkably well.

Joy and kindness radiate from the faces we meet here daily in rural Shiga, Japan.  How can they be so friendly?  Have even the adults forgotten our past? 

No, they remember it.  They remember how McArthur and Truman respected Japan`s dignity, recognizing and preserving the treasured significance of Japan`s Emperor by allowing him an ongoing important, albeit ceremonial role.  They also extended Marshall Plan-like resources to help Japan rebuild and gave the Japanese their first elections.  Japan, before WWII, mistreated its enemies after defeating them. The Chinese and Koreans still remember.  Many Japanese after WWII expected the same. 

Christina and Rachel run through digging, setting, and attacking drills. The little faces now turn more serious as they strain to impress the blond foreigners as well as their watchful coach.

 Japan to this day remains largely distrustful of China, Russia, and  especially North Korea.  Increased trade with China and Russia thankfully may be softening the animosity.  Yet Japan embraces the country that dropped atom bombs on nearby Hiroshima and Nagasaki just 60 years ago.

 Some of this surely has to do with economic self-interest: the U.S. economy is one of the greatest powers the world has ever known, leading even Vietnam now to seek tourism, trade, and exchanges with America.  Still the unexpected sensitivity and generosity of our post-war leaders pays off to this day.

The clinic ends.  The little girls surround their two Huskers.  They  share autographs, smiles, hugs, and peels of laughter.  `Bye.`  `See you.` These American-Japanese exchanges have gone on for decades, but time makes them no less astonishing.