In addition to visiting Graceland, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi made another, less publicized visit during his trip to the United States:
On Thursday last week, the day before he went to Graceland, Koizumi spent some quality time with U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Koizumi, boyish with a bohemian hair flip, chatted with several patients and posed for pictures with them and their families on the hospital’s fifth floor, the Japanese Embassy’s minister for public affairs, Mitsuru Kitano , said after the visit.
“Since the wounded soldiers could not move about freely, the prime minister got close to each soldier on their beds to pose for a commemorative photo,” Kitano said.
Spec. Maxwell Ramsey , 36, of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, greeted Koizumi with: ” Konnichi-wa. Hajime-mashite. Ogenki desuka ?” — Japanese for “Hello, how do you do? Are you well?”
A surprised Koizumi, who usually chats through an interpreter, replied in English, “Your Japanese is very good.”
Ramsey, whose wife was born in Japan, described Koizumi as “polite, casual, a bit reserved yet also lighthearted.”
Of course, he couldn’t resist thinking ahead to the trip to Tennessee:
“Do you know any Elvis songs?” Koizumi wanted to know, and within seconds they were both belting out: “Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.”
Hey, wait a minute, I thought the rest of the world hated us.
