US Ambassodor to Japan Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late US president John F. Kennedy, says she was initiated into the intricacy of Japan’s arts and culture long before becoming US ambassador in Tokyo.
“Growing up, Japan seemed to be a faraway place,” the 55-year-old lawyer, who was educated at Harvard and Columbia, said in an interview with the mass-circulation Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun published yesterday.
“But during my five years working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, I loved to walk through the Japanese galleries, and I became more familiar with Japanese arts and culture,” she added, according to the daily’s English edition.
Photo: EPA
“I have long admired Japanese civilization and I know that America has no more important ally than Japan,” she said. “America has no truer friend than Japan, and there is no more important place I could serve my country than in Japan.”
Kennedy’s arrival in Tokyo, which came a week before the 50th anniversary on Friday of her father’s assassination in Dallas, has been hailed in Japan.
However, some critics have voiced concern at having a diplomatic novice in the important post at a time of high tensions between Japan and a rising China.
Kennedy, the only surviving child of the president, and her husband, exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg, spent their 1986 honeymoon in Kyoto and Nara.
She told the Yomiuri she had always wanted to return to Japan, adding she was especially honored to be the envoy at a crucial time for the US-Japan alliance.
Kennedy, the first female US ambassador to Japan, studied Japanese art at college, the daily said.
She was quoted by Yomiuri as saying she was interested in learning more about Japanese poetic traditions.
“I am eager to play Hyakunin Isshu,” she said, apparently referring to a Japanese card game based on a collection of 100 ancient poems and often played during a New Year holiday break.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number