Today in Japanese History: September 22 (UCLA Teaching about Japan website)

September 22

1940 Japanese forces invaded French Indochina (North Vietnam).

1986 Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro made insulting remarks about American minorities. Unfortunately his September 26 apology only made things worse. See a portion of PM Nakasone's comments and other examples of Western and Japanese observations of each other below.

1998 Japanese Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo and US President Bill Clinton met to discuss the Asian economic crisis and Japanese economic restructuring.

Voices from Asian History Today

"They are so crafty in their hearts that nobody can understand them. Whence it is said that they have three hearts: a false one in their mouths for all the world to see, another within their breasts only for their friends, and a third in the depths of their hearts, reserved for themselves alone and never manifested to anybody."

Joao Rodrigues, The Island of Japan, 16th century account

"In Nagasaki, I was pleased to see that business was at a low ebb. The Japanese should stay away from business."

Rudyard Kipling

"I am therefore convinced that our policy should be to stake everything on the present opportunity, to conclude friendly alliances, to send ships to foreign countries everywhere and conduct trade, to copy the foreigners where they are at their best, and so repair our shortcomings, to foster our national strength and complete our armaments, and so gradually subject the foreigners to our influence until in the end all the countries of the world know the blessings of perfect tranquillity and our hegemony is acknowledged throughout the globe."

Hotta Masayoshi, 1857

"The level of knowledge in the United States is lower than in Japan due to the considerable number of blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans."

Nakasone Yasuhiko, Sept. 1986

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