Japan quotes

Japan offers as much novelty perhaps as an excursion to another planet.

- Isabella married name Isabella Bishop Bird
  Unbeaten Tracks in Japan:  An  Account of  Travels on Horseback in the Interior1880 (published1885).

   We declared war on America and Britain out of Our sincere desire to ensure Japan's self-preservation and the stabilisation of East Asia.

-Hirohito
  Declaration,15  Aug. Quoted in Edward Behr Hirohito (1989).

Yesterday, December 7,1941a date which will live in infamythe United States of America was suddenlyand deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

- Franklin D(elano) Roosevelt
  Address to Congress, 8 Dec, following theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

InTurkey it was always1952, in Malaysia1937; Afghanistan was1910 and Bolivia1949. It is twenty years ago inthe Soviet Union, ten in Norway, five in France.It is always last year in Australia and next week in Japan.

- Paul Edward Theroux
  The Kingdom ByThe Sea, ch.1.

This is farewell. I shall wait beneath the moss Until the flowers are fragrant In this island country of Japan.

- Hideki Tojo
  His final statement before execution, 23 Dec. Quoted in R J C ButowTojo and the ComingWar (1961).

We are becoming an economic colony. America isup for sale.One percent of Japan's manufacturing base is foreign-owned; 2 per cent of Germany's is; 3 per cent of France's.Ours is18 per cent and growing rapidly.

- Paul Efthemios Tsongas
  Quoted in the Los AngelesTimes,17 Mar.

In terms ofcommunication,Japan isliketheblack hole of the universe. It receives signals but does not emit them.

-Tadao Umaseo
Quoted in David Halberstam The Reckoning (1986).