Hirohito Winds Up His Grand U.S. Tour

Like some other imperial visitors before them, including Ethiopia's late Emperor Haile Selassie and the Shah of Iran, Japan's Emperor Hirohito and his wife Empress Nagako last week paid a call at that West Coast U.S. shrine, Disneyland. During their 90-minute visit at the vast fantasy park outside Los Angeles, the imperial couple chatted with a king-sized Mickey Mouse and watched a Bicentennial parade. What interested the Emperor most? Disneyland's diorama of primeval life in the Grand Canyon, depicting a variety of prehistoric animals--all of which seemed far more familiar to Hirohito, an avid natural scientist, than Disney's creations.

Disneyland was only one of several stops on the eclectic imperial itinerary, which last week extended--in mood and manner as well as geography--from the canyons of New York City to the quiet beaches of Honolulu. The week began with a helicopter ride out of Manhattan for a sedate visit with Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and his wife Happy at the handsome Japanese-style house they have built on their Pocantico Hills estate. Rockefeller, playing tourist in his own home, snapped souvenir photos of his distinguished visitors.

Later the couple flew to Chicago, where the Emperor raised a toast to Mayor Richard J. Daley (for his "remarkable achievements" in government) and, on a side trip, inspected a 2,500-acre corn and soybean farm near Joliet, Ill.

In Los Angeles, the main event--besides the Disneyland tour--was a luncheon at the Music Center attended by 530 of the city's leading lights, including John Wayne, whom Hirohito specifically asked to meet. In Los Angeles, and later in San Francisco and San Diego, the Emperor also met scores of Japanese Americans, whom he praised at one point for "withstanding many difficulties" in the U.S. At week's end the imperial couple flew on to Hawaii, where they planned to spend three days touring and resting before they board their jet this week for the long ride home to Tokyo.

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