    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [April 18, 1996]
    [Pages 598-599]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Luncheon Hosted by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of
    Japan in Tokyo
    April 18, 1996

        Prime Minister and Mrs. Hashimoto, the distinguished Japanese
    citizens here present, and my fellow Americans: Let me begin, Mr. Prime
    Minister, for thanking you for hosting this luncheon, and thanking the
    Emperor and Empress for the magnificent state visit, and all the people
    of Japan for making Hillary and me and the Secretary of State, the
    Secretary of Commerce, and our entire delegation feel so very welcome
    here.
        Over the last 50 years the United States and Japan have built a
    remarkable partnership for peace and security, for prosperity, and for
    freedom. We devoted ourselves at this meeting to planning for the next
    50 years of that partnership, reaffirming our security ties, talking
    about a Common Agenda to lead the world to a period of greater peace and
    prosperity.
        But I want to say at this luncheon that I fully realize that the
    work that each of you has done to bring our people closer together, day-
    in and day-out, over years and decades, has made possible the progress
    that we have achieved these last 2 days.
        As the Prime Minister noted, the friendship between our peoples
    began well over a century ago. The first known Japanese citizen to live
    in the United States was a young sailor named Nakahama Manjiro. He was
    shipwrecked in 1841, rescued by an American whaleboat, sent to school in
    Massachusetts. Now, Mr. Prime Minister, some of our delegation think
    it's a pretty good thing to be sent to school in Massachusetts.
    [Laughter]
        Ten years later, he returned to Japan and became one of the few
    Japanese-English interpreters in this country. Then he was chosen

    [[Page 599]]

    to accompany the first Japanese diplomatic delegation to the United
    States in the spring of 1860. President Buchanan hosted these Japanese
    envoys with a state banquet. Tens of thousands of Americans turned out
    to see them in Baltimore and Philadelphia, hundreds of thousands of
    Americans filled the streets of New York City as their parade went by,
    and our great poet Walt Whitman immemorialized this event in a poem
    called ``A Broadway Pageant.''
        Today, our contacts are more common so they don't attract so much
    notice, but they are very important. We see them in the Japanese
    students who attend our universities, in the American schoolchildren the
    Emperor and Empress met when they came to the United States who spend
    half of each day learning Japanese. We see it in your great gift to
    American baseball, Hideo Nomo, and in Americans like Terry Bross who
    come to Japan to play baseball. We see it in the Fulbright program that
    celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and more than four decades
    here in Japan.
        We see it in the business leaders who come from America to Japan to
    work and in the fine Japanese business leaders who come to the United
    States and establish plants and put our people to work. We see it in the
    friendships which have developed over time. One such friendship was
    celebrated last night when a delegation of Americans headed by our
    former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young and Mrs. Coretta Scott
    King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, came here and met with
    Japanese friends to honor the life and the service of the late Secretary
    of Commerce, Ron Brown, and other Americans who perished in that
    terrible crash in Bosnia just a few days ago. And I thank you on their
    behalf for that friendship.
        As I said to the Diet a few moments ago, because of the power of our
    economies and the depth of our devotion to freedom and democracy, Japan
    and the United States must forge a partnership for leadership in the
    21st century. But we should all remember that if we are to succeed as
    partners and as allies, we must first be friends. It is that friendship
    which I honor today and which I dedicate myself to strengthening.
        I ask now that we join in a toast to the Prime Minister and Mrs.
    Hashimoto and to the people of Japan.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:20 p.m. at the Hotel New Otani.