Koizumi Can't Help Falling In Love With Elvis

A couple of weeks ago, the citizens of the United States witnessed one of the most profound events of world history! Students for years to come will most certainly be reading of this event that will surely change the way all wars are viewed. You know damn well about that which I speak! The Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, while visiting America and George Bush, fulfilled his life-long dream to visit Graceland. We have pictures to prove it. He even sang a verse of "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" for the press, Lisa Marie and Priscilla. Even though his voice sounds like fingernails on a blackboard, he was undaunted. He put on a pair of sunglasses and did the Elvis "moves" ( quite well I might add)! As I watched this, I couldn't help but wonder what my father would say if he saw this!

My father (Big Ed) drove landing crafts during the invasion of Okinawa and had a front row seat in the South Pacific for part of WWII. I wondered how Big Ed would have responded to the Prime Minister of Japan doing Elvis gyrations while his graying mane bounced freely in Graceland. In Okinawa over 200,000 died! Iwo Jima lasted 36 days and there were 25,851 casualties ( 1 in 3 killed or wounded). 6825 American boys killed and 22,000 Japanese. At Tarawa in 1943 the US Marines suffered nearly 3000 casualties. The toll was even higher for the Japanese. Of the 4700 defenders, only 17 survived. The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed 150,000 and the bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 140,000. What most people don't realize is that the atomic bombs didn't kill nearly as many as the napalm pounding Japan got before the "big bombs" were dropped. At Pearl Harbor there were 2117 navy and marine deaths, 228 army deaths and 57 civilians. These statistics are only a fraction of the total and these numbers do not even begin to reflect the hatred these two countries had for each other. History has not given us any reason that George Bush and Junichiro Koizumi would even speak to each other, much less go frolicking together through Graceland.

That's where Elvis comes in! What would The Greatest Generation have thought if they had known that about 10 years after the war, a young, wavy-haired, hip-gyrating, guitar strumming, rock and roll singer would rise up out of Tupelo, Mississippi and that his life would be the opiate that soothes the painful memories of war. Look at this picture and think about what this image forces us to see: either war is very stupid or Elvis is really good. I'm talkin' REAL GOOD!

If the "rock and roll" of Elvis was the catalyst for change after WWII; maybe "rap" will be the modern day equivalent. 50 years from now the Taliban Prime Minister could be visiting the President of the US and get a tour of the homes of Ludacris and Fitty Cent (national landmarks by then). The state-run press could report on all the excitement as the Prime Minister and the President toured the President's "crib". The Taliban Prime Minister could "bust-a-move" and lay down a little "rap"for the HDTV cameras!

Look at this picture again and think about what this represents. I have been to 3 world fairs and 2 goat ropings, but I ain't never seen anything like that.

Is this a crazy world or what?