The Emperor of Japan

When I worked for the IRS, I loved being selected for short work details to our National Office in Washington D.C. On one such detail, in June 1994, I was working in D.C. at the IRS building at 1111 Constitution Ave.  And one afternoon, instead of just leaving by the side entrance closer to the Metro stop which whisked me home – as I always thought of wherever I was staying when I traveled – I always brought enough books and writing tablets to make any place my home – I left by the front entrance, perhaps on my way for a late afternoon visit to the American History Museum, a favorite haunt of mine while working in D.C. 

It was a nice day, it wasn’t quite the summer school break time yet and the height of the tourist season, when there were literally hordes of visitors on the sidewalks and pathways and everywhere else.  In fact, I only vaguely remember one person walking by on the sidewalk and I seemed alone in front of the building, perhaps the only one leaving from the front entrance at that time. 

As I paused at the top of the stairs – something I always almost instinctually do before descending grand stairs such as these, though I don’t know why, perhaps just to look around – I heard sirens coming from the direction of the Capitol and I looked toward the sound, and I saw a motorcade approaching going in the direction of the White House.  As the motorcade drew near, I eventually saw the limousines flying the Japanese flag and I remembered that I had seen on the news that Emperor Akihito would be visiting Washington DC.  I stopped to watch the motorcade pass and then I saw in the window of the back seat of one of the approaching limousines the Emperor himself.  I was stunned and delighted, and I raised my hand to wave, and as he passed, he looked at me, smiled, waved back to me and bowed his head ever so slightly.  I smiled back and waved even more while his limousine and the entire motorcade passed until it was gone, moving away towards the White House and the Emperor’s meeting with the president.

And as I made my way down the steps to the sidewalk, I thought how unique, how historic this was for me, as it is not every day one sees a man – a nice man – whose father, Emperor Hirohito, was once considered a god by his nation and the mortal enemy of ours.  Now that was a little bit of history that I would not have seen if I had just gone home or had left work early and had already been in the Museum of American History. For on that day, history paraded before me in a limousine motorcade, as I stood at the top of the stairs at 1111 Constitution Avenue.

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