Two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, an article by Susan Sontag, novelist, essayist, director, playwright and easily America's most provocative public intellectual, appeared in the now-famous black-cover issue of the New Yorker magazine. In it, Sontag excoriated Americans for their ignorance, blind patriotism and the "reality-concealing rhetoric" spouted by the nation's public officials and media commentators. The perpetrators of the attacks were not "cowards," she wrote, adding: "Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together."

The essay was trademark Sontag: bold, unsentimental, eloquent. But suddenly, the writer found herself under attack. Hate mail, death threats and calls to revoke her citizenship followed the magazine's publication. "I still think mine was the right response," she later said. "But I was quite astonished."

At her appearance last Sunday in a four-hour plus symposium here in Tokyo, Sontag let it be known that she remains resolutely unrepentant. Nothing changed after Sept. 11, she announced in her opening statement, except this: "The U.S. got a justification for its imperial scope and ambition, and a new license was granted by Americans for what the administration wanted to do anyway. Don't confuse the rhetoric with the reality.