Sir,

Christopher Johnson’s piece on NHK (Number 1 Shimbun, October 2009) reminds me of one recent incident related to NHK as well as our Club.

Despite the fact that Dick Holbrook, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, spoke at our Club on April 18 and appreciated Japan’s ongoing efforts to make humanitarian contributions to Afghanistan through JICA and NGOs, NHK Channel 1 broadcast twice – as late as some time in June and again on July 8 in the program called Close-up Gendai – the scene of former American Ambassador Thomas Schieffer speaking at his last luncheon on Jan. 14 at the Japan National Press Club, in which he urged Japan not to say “No, we cannot” when the U.S. asked Japan to do more in Afghanistan.

It was certainly an outdated broadcast, giving a misleading impression on U.S.-Japan relations to the viewers of NHK television, which reflects also NHK’s lack of attention to the timely professional luncheons of our Club.

Shijuro Ogata
Associate Member

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To the Editor:

On Oct. 1, I dropped into the Club for lunch – the first visit in some time. I had actually been in the Club about a week earlier with two friends from my university newspaper days, one friend’s wife and my own wife. That Thursday, however, I tried the Club lunch. It was spectacularly good, as was the service. I hope I might return again and I wish I had known how good the food has become so my wife, my friends and myself might have tried it during our evening visit a week or so earlier. We did not try it because among the quintet were some branded with the scarlet “S” for smoker. I would humbly submit that the membership see its way to conceding even a cramped closet where the craven could cower to ply in proper ventilation their vile habit.

Sincerely,
Darryl “S” Gibson
(This letter has been edited due to limited space: Ed.)