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Next day, Kennedy began his rounds at 7:35 a.m., spent the morning talking with politicians and business executives, had lunch with a dozen Tokyo college students. That afternoon the Attorney General visited Nihon University, accepted an honorary doctor of laws degree, then drove across town to Waseda University—where he ran into riot. Trying to make their way into the university's memorial hall to deliver a speech, Bobby and Ethel Kennedy were mobbed by enthusiastically friendly students. But awaiting Kennedy inside the hall were members of Zengakuren, the ultra-leftist Japanese students' organization. They booed and catcalled, drowned out his remarks. Finally, Kennedy pointed to the noisiest of them all. "You, sir," said Kennedy, "have you something to tell against us? Come up to the platform."
The student, 21-year-old Yuzo Tachiya, leaped onto the stage and, while Kennedy held a microphone for him, launched into a long harangue against the U.S. When Kennedy pulled the microphone back to answer, a power failure knocked out the public-address system and half the stage lights. Icily calm. Kennedy borrowed a portable police megaphone and tried to speak. Standing beside him, Tachiya kept up his screaming diatribe. The audience began to yell too. With the meeting out of control, a student cheerleader climbed to the platform, closed the session with a call for the Waseda school song ("Towering edifice In woods of Waseda"). In a final indignity, one cheerleader accidentally struck Ethel Kennedy in the stomach with his arm. Mrs. Kennedy reeled back, straightened again, managed a weak smile.
At midweek the Kennedys climbed aboard a chartered plane and flew 225 miles to Osaka, "the Chicago of Japan." They visited a technical high school, discovered that television appearances in Tokyo had made them national celebrities. In the schoolyard hundreds of students rushed up, thrust out their arms, yelled "Kennedy-san, shake hands." Bobby shook. At the nearby Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the Attorney General sat down at a workers' table, chatted about Communism while munching manfully on a whale steak.
From Osaka, the party drove to an ancient Buddhist temple at Nara, where priests offered Kennedy incense sticks, indicated a nearby bronze kettle where the sticks are traditionally burned by visitors. Kennedy motioned to accompanying Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer. "What are the implications if I do this?" Replied the ambassador: "It just shows respect. Go ahead." "You're sure it won't look as if I'm worshiping Buddha?" asked Roman Catholic Kennedy. Whispered Reischauer: "No, It's O.K." Kennedy picked up an incense stick still muttering: "If I get kicked out . . ."