One bitter, sleety day in Moscow last week, as ailing Japanese Premier Hatoyama climbed gingerly into a Soviet limousine, he asked the Russian chauffeur: "Is the weather a bad omen for the talks?"
Cracked the chauffeur: "You know the Russian proverb: 'Rain on Saturday, laughter the following Friday.' " But the following Friday, as 73-year-old Premier Hatoyama sat down with Russia's Premier Bulganin to sign an agreement to "end the state of war" between Japan and the Soviet Union, only the Russians were laughing.
In World War II, by issuing a formal declaration of war one week before Japan yielded to U.S....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
