National Affairs: Welcome for a Prince

I reached the Prince and said, “In this class your name is Jimmy.” There was no particular reason for Jimmy, except that it just happened to be one of my favorite names.

He replied promptly, “No. I am Prince.”

“Yes,” I agreed cordially. “You are Prince Akihito. That is your real name. But in this class you have an English name. In this class your name is Jimmy.” I waited, a little breathless.

He smiled cheerfully, and the whole class beamed. I realized . . . that he had always been identified in his own mind with his princeship and was unable at first to think of himself as a boy among other boys.

—Windows for the Crown Prince

Japan’s Crown Prince was twelve years old when his American tutor, Mrs. Elizabeth Gray Vining, called him Jimmy. The lesson learned that day seemed very much with Akihito last week as he journeyed across the Pacific on his way to the coronation in London. Now 19, diminutive (5 ft. 4 in. 114 Ibs.) and dignified (when protocol demanded), the Prince, aboard the President Wilson, shook off his six chamberlains, mingled easily with fellow passengers, dined at the captain’s table, ate American dishes, held a Martini at cocktail parties (but was not seen to drink it), played pingpong and mah-jongg with pretty American and Chinese girls. Said one of them later: “He was just like any other 19-year-old kid. He was very humble and had no front for a prince.” Politely, the girls addressed him as Prince Akihito. The Prince said, “You’re not Japanese subjects, so you may call me anything you like.”

At the Honolulu stopover, Akihito marched into a ship’s lounge meeting with five dozen newsmen, read a formal statement of greeting in Japanese (“Here in Hawaii you have a veritable paradise of the Pacific … a harmonious cosmopolitan community . . .”), then added extemporaneously in English: “I have heard so much about Hawaiian hospitality that I am sure I will enjoy my visit here.” As the ship nosed in, his eye was especially taken by a quartet of hula dancers; he asked, and was assured that he would see more hula-hula before he left. Thousands of Hawaii’s Japanese wept, shouted “banzai.” waved imitation cherry blossoms and risingsun flags as the Prince went ashore for a round of ceremonial visits.

At San Francisco, the pier was jam-packed with welcomers, including a Japanese-American Boy Scout band, two lines of Japanese-American girls dressed in kimonos and carrying paper flags, a Hawaiian merchant trying to push his way up the gangplank with four imperial Stetsons for the Crown Prince and his party, and California’s Governor Earl Warren. Akihito waved to them all from the bridge. He shook hands with the governor, read another statement in Japanese (“I shall never forget the magnificent sight of the Golden Gate Bridge, the tranquillity of San Francisco Bay, and the beauty of the city as seen from the sea”). In the midst of the shipboard ceremonies, the Prince took time off for a snack of hot dogs, hamburgers and potato salad.

From the dockside, a powder blue Cadillac whisked the Prince to the airport, where he boarded a Canadian military plane for Vancouver. There he took a train for the rest of the trip across the Continent. After the coronation, he will come back to the U.S. for a more leisurely visit.