New Tape Shows Bush’s Dinner Fall : Media: Dramatic footage was shot by Japanese network that defied a ban and left cameras running. Film has not been broadcast.

A clear, dramatic videotape exists showing the moments when President Bush reeled, vomited, passed out and toppled from his chair at a dinner here Wednesday night--footage not seen in a previously released tape.

The tape, which shows a frightened Barbara Bush leaping to assist her husband, was viewed Friday by the Washington Post.

It has not been broadcast in Japan or the United States, and officials of the Japanese television network that was responsible for filming the dinner denied that such a tape existed. It reveals what happened immediately before the scenes that have already been broadcast, when Bush is lying on the floor surrounded by Secret Service agents.

In Washington, the White House said Friday it was not aware of the existence of the tape.

The Japanese government, worried that the episode has embarrassed its distinguished American guest, has sharply criticized NHK, the big Japanese public-broadcasting network in charge of the cameras at Wednesday’s dinner.

The tape was made after NHK set up two cameras in the banquet room at the residence of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Near the start of the dinner, Japanese and American officials ordered reporters to leave the banquet room, and reluctantly, they did. But an NHK man, defying a government ban on filming, left one camera running--the one aimed directly at the head table where Bush was sitting.

NHK cameramen said the unmanned camera was sending its signal to two monitors, one in the press holding room at the residence, and one at NHK headquarters.

NHK officials initially said there was no tape of the moment when Bush collapsed. They said a technician who saw the collapse on the monitor quickly pushed a button to start taping, but that the camera’s signal was not taped until half a minute or so after Bush fell.

But there is a tape that actually shows the entire crisis. This videotape is more dramatic, and more revealing of Bush’s condition, than the scenes that have been broadcast.

The tape opens with the guests eating and chatting at the head table: Bush, Miyazawa at the President’s left and Barbara Bush to the left of Miyazawa.

A Secret Service man is seen standing directly behind the President. But since his eyes are searching the room, he fails to notice any problem until Bush is already down.

While Miyazawa and Barbara Bush are talking, the clearly stricken President closes his eyes and his head reels. He turns pale and his head drops to his chest. Then, in the scariest moment, he appears to pass out completely, and his inert body slumps to the left as he vomits, toward Miyazawa.

The first person to notice any problem is Barbara Bush. Looking horrified, she first reaches an arm out toward her husband. As the President falls from his chair toward Miyazawa’s lap, Barbara Bush leaps up, puts her arms around her husband and works to clear the vomit from his mouth with a napkin.

Miyazawa, remarkably calm despite a large amount of vomit in his lap, then cradles the President’s head. As Secret Service agents gently put Bush on the floor, Barbara Bush moves away and appears to say something like “Give him room.” This is why the tape that has been seen shows her staying some distance from her husband the whole time.

Eventually, the tape reaches the section that has already been broadcast, with Bush on the floor, then rising with a smile and pumping his left arm as a sign of assurance to his host.

It was not clear Friday why later parts of the tape had been broadcast, but not the crucial moments.

NHK officials, contacted after the full tape was shown to the Post, repeated their earlier explanation, that only the latter part of the event had been taped. They offered no explanation for the existence of the tape of the actual collapse, or the failure to broadcast it.

(Washington Post editors declined to discuss how a reporter was able to see the full tape.)

NHK has cooperative arrangements with other networks around the world. There was disagreement here today as to whether those partner networks had access to the signal from the unmanned camera at the dinner. The scene could have been taped from any monitor in the world that was receiving the NHK camera’s signal.

NHK’s partner in the United States is ABC-TV. ABC has not shown the tape of Bush’s actual collapse. An ABC spokesman in New York made clear that the only tape the network is aware of is the one already broadcast.

The now-familiar tape that begins a half-minute or so after Bush fell was initially broadcast on NHK Wednesday night, Tokyo time, about 40 minutes after the incident. Then NHK made it available to all other networks around the world.

NHK’s action sparked a controversy in Japan, where the government tries, with mixed success, to control what is reported about public events.

Japan’s governmental spokesman, Taizo Watanabe, formally apologized to his U.S. counterpart, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

“We have explained to the American side that we are making strong representations to NHK for violating the rules of filming that evening,” Watanabe said Friday. “We are pursuing this further.”