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Document identity
localId
7337028
label
Dinner at Akasaka Palace [Pool Report]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
7337028
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Dinner at Akasaka Palace [Pool Report]
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
subjects
Japan
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1
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yes
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naId
7337028
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item
productionDates
day
20
logicalDate
1974-11-20
month
11
year
1974
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description
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nara-archive
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1
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0
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document
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2994f815aafa3bd7
ocrText
Digitized from Box 5 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
NOVEMBER 20, 1974
PCOL REPORT
Dinner at Akasaka Palace
President Ford's dinner for the Emperor and Empress was held in a baroque
banquet hall on the second floor of the Akasaka Palace. Called the "Bird and
Flower" banquet hall, it held ten tables of twelve and a head table with
twelve places. Places were set with White House china - white with blue
border.
The "Bird and Flower' room is heavily paneled in dark wood with gilded,
ornate trim. Tapestries and plate sized oval paintings of various birds in
elaborately wooded settings were placed in the paneling about every four
feet throughout the 40' by 200' hall. The ceilings were a series of blue sky
scenes graced by various birds in flight and an occasional sitting peacock.
Inexplicably, at each corner of the ceiling, there was a panel containing a
dead deer draped over a balcony.
As twenty-four white gloved, black tied waiters stood by, guests began
filing into the room at 8:10. Once the room was filled, the Emperor's
family entered and then, at 8:15, everyone stood, anticipating the arrival
of President Ford and the Emperor. They remained standing, silently,
for five minutes until Mr. Ford and the Emperor entered the room and
walked to their places at the head table. It was eerily quiet, the stillness
broken only by the shuffling of chairs as the Emperor and Ford sat down, the
Emperor to the President's right with an interpreter seated closely behind.
Prime Minister Tanaka and Mrs. Tanaka were seated at the opposite, extreme
end of the table. Kissinger sat to the Emperor's right. At the other tables,
Hartmann, Rumsfeld and Scowcroft had interpreters. The men were dressed
in business suits. Japanese women were in traditional kimonos. Following
the national anthems - Japan's first - we were led out.
Tom Brokaw - NBC