One interviewer called him "a mobile office." Others called him "a pusher, a hyperactive bundle of energy and ideas, a class act." Magazines referred to him as "a Japanese institution," and "a one-man United Nations."

Of himself, several years later, Bernard Krisher, a retired journalist in his 70s, said, "I had a good education, the profession I wanted, my wife and two good kids. What do I do the rest of my life?"

He gave his own answer. "If you have a roof over your head and three meals a day, stop and think, do something in return and don't expect anything."