WAR CRIMES: Yes, No Bananas

When a Japanese is asked, “Is it hot?” he replies, “Yes, it is hot.” When asked, “Is it not?” he logically replies, “Yes, it is not.”

Last week, at the International War Crimes trial in Tokyo, U.S. Chief Prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan asked onetime Imperial Adviser Marquis Koicho Kido: “Is it not a fact that from the beginning to the end of your political career, you consistently opposed any move by the Emperor to bring about law and order?” Marquis Kido nodded sublimely. “Yes,” he answered through an interpreter. But his Western judges seemed to misunderstand. He explained that he had meant: “Yes, it is not a fact.”