Bush Pays Farewell Visit to New Emperor : Says His Thoughts Drifted Back to War During Hirohito Funeral

President Bush had a farewell meeting this morning with Emperor Akihito and later confessed that at the funeral of Akihito’s father, Emperor Hirohito, his thoughts drifted back to the bitter days of World War II and members of his squadron of Navy fliers who were lost in the war against Japan.

“I can’t say that in the quiet of the ceremony that my mind didn’t go back to the wonder of it all,” Bush said at a brief news conference. “Because I vividly remember my wartime experience, and I vividly remember the personal friends that were in our squadron that are no longer alive as a result of combat. . . . But my mind didn’t dwell on that at all and what I really thought is . . . isn’t it miraculous what has happened since the war.”

Bush, who was shot down Sept. 2, 1944, while on a torpedo bombing mission in the South Pacific and was rescued by a U.S. submarine, said he felt no unease at Friday’s funeral of the emperor who reigned during that war, although he said that if it had been suggested to him in 1944 that he would be representing the United States at Hirohito’s funeral, he would have said, “No way.”

The visit with Akihito was one of the final meetings that Bush and his wife, Barbara, attended in Tokyo before departing at midday for Beijing in his six-day Asian tour, which will also take him to South Korea before he returns to Washington.

His visit here afforded Bush an opportunity, at the start of his term in office, to try to smooth out rough edges that often mar U.S.-Japanese relations. He also spent a good deal of time with leaders of other countries here for the funeral, holding bilateral meetings with 20 of them.

In a press conference just before he left for Beijing, Bush said his meetings with the foreign leaders were “extremely useful.”

Many of the more sensitive U.S.-Japanese issues were not discussed, at least in detail, according to participants. The visit’s greatest impact may have been in its symbolic nature: the fact that the President made his first overseas journey, five weeks into his term, to Japan, to pay his respects at the last rites of Hirohito, a World War II enemy of the United States.

Quickly Met With Takeshita

Within hours of his arrival here Thursday, Bush met with Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who was the first foreign leader to meet with Bush in the White House.

His meeting with the Japanese prime minister formed a foundation for the day and a half he plans to spend in Beijing, where some of the more sensitive issues affecting U.S. ties with Asia are likely to arise.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that, among other issues, Bush and Takeshita focused on the slow-moving withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia, where units have been deployed for a decade.

Some of the difficult issues currently clouding the U.S.-Japanese relationship were either avoided or glossed over during Bush’s Tokyo stay. Thus, there was no discussion of either the Japanese interest in obtaining the necessary licenses and technology to co-produce with the U.S. military industry a jet fighter plane, dubbed the FSX, or the U.S. budget deficit, which has global economic ramifications.

“Our position on the FSX is that it’s under review. We hope to have a decision relatively soon, but not at this time,” Fitzwater said.

And there was only a “passing reference” to thorny trade issues, Fitzwater said.

Meanwhile, in written responses to questions submitted by Beijing’s official New China News Agency, Bush gave no hint of moderating the U.S. military role in South Korea, where about 44,000 U.S. troops are stationed.

“It would be far too optimistic at this time to suggest that tensions have been reduced to the point where the deterrence provided by U.S. forces in Korea is no longer needed,” Bush said, given “the large standing army, stationed well forward” in North Korea.

According to the text of his replies, Bush called for an expansion of U.S. economic relations with China. The United States is China’s third-largest trading partner, behind Hong Kong and Japan, and U.S. exports to China have made huge leaps in recent years, reaching a value of $4.9 billion in 1988.