Tetsujin Nijūhachi-gō

Blaupunkt radios from Germany were big sellers and cheap in the Navy Exchange when we lived in Japan, 1963 to 1966. Interesting, shiny bent wood designs and sitting on little peg legs, they were modern looking for the day, and the sound was good. Now and then there are similar items on eBay, not that we’re interested, there’s enough stuff in our house already.

Soon after arriving, we bought an AM/FM/SW table model Blaupunkt with short wave band. It sat on a corner table in our dining room and was the radio we turned on that Saturday morning in November 1963 when Bev Hatchett, a neighbor across the cul-de-sac, phoned to tell Linda that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Friday afternoon in Dallas being Saturday morning in Yokohama.

When that call came from Bev, I turned on the Blaupunkt and rushed across the room to turn off the little black and white TV with rabbit ears, on which Malinda and Jody were watching a favorite Saturday morning Japanese cartoon Tetsujin Nijūhachi-gō.

That Blaupunkt got good reception on the short wave bands, and I enjoyed listening to Radio Peking and Radio Moscow, which came on evenings and into the wee hours, starting and ending with The Internationale and broadcasting in English. Both stations broadcast simplistic, childish hogwash propaganda that was entertaining, even amusing.

Radio Peking always heaped lavish praise on Chairman Mao, Premier Chou en Lai and Vice Premier Chen Yi, told us what they were doing and saying and where they were going for various events, and viciously slammed the United States and other “running dogs” of capitalism. Little did any of us on either side of the Bamboo Curtain know that within fifty years the American government would depend on Chinese wealth as a source for borrowing money and that more Buicks would be manufactured and sold in China than in the United States.

It all goes to show, doesn’t it! International economic and industrial interdependence is good for world peace because it mutually affects national interests. If we had exchanged nuclear bursts with the Chinese during the height of the Cold War, no rich Chinese capitalist businessman would be driving his Buick LaCrosse home from work this evening. And I wouldn’t be typing this nonsense on my made in China MacBook.

TW