I think we had that moment in the White House a few months ago when the Japanese reporter asked POTUS about the surprise attack on Iran in front of the great new Japanese PM. Although POTUS brought up Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor he did it with humor.
To one who finds warmth in these small observations from a stranger’s eyes —
I am no servant of any government.
If I must name what I am, then I am a warlord who first opened his eyes to this world in the year 1534.
America is a land of such strange and generous wonder that even an old soldier’s heart is quietly undone by it. Yet my prayer, unlike those of my distant age, is not for conquest or glory. It is that the peoples of this earth might one day live together in simple fellowship, without the old hunger for quarrel.
More than anything, I wish for my daughters to walk into a future where they may laugh freely beneath peaceful skies, their hearts unburdened by the shadows we once carried.
And if those who guide the destinies of Japan and America could ever look upon the thought of our two nations raising arms against each other again, and find in it only foolishness worthy of shared laughter… then this old heart would know a contentment greater than any victory I once sought on distant fields.