Dear Prime Minister Taro Aso,
When I first came to this gentle country I was 18 years old. I worked for the U.S Department of Defense. My fellow airmen and I walked about the city smoking, drinking and eating. We drank beer straight from the necks of oversize beer bottles, spoke loudly and roughhoused on the trains, and called out to girls on the streets of Tokyo like we were back in the 'hoods of America.
Thinking back now I could almost cry. How we must have looked to people around us. How much social damage did we do? How many people's image of non-Japanese people did we forever taint? Even though our upbringing and the superiority complex bestowed on us by militant Uncle Sam did come into play, I wonder how much of our rampage could have been avoided had we been taught our host country's culture and manners.