Rising Sun

“How are they making you responsible? I don’t see that.”

“I know you don’t. But they do. Believe me. They do.”

I looked at the line of cars creeping forward, blending into the haze of downtown. We passed electronic billboards for Hitachi (#1 IN COMPUTERS IN AMERICA), for Canon (AMERICA’S COPY LEADER), and Honda (NUMBER ONE RATED CAR IN AMERICA!). Like most of the new Japanese ads, they were bright enough to run in the daytime. The billboards cost thirty thousand dollars a day to rent; most American companies couldn’t afford them.

Co

“Can you?”

“Sure. You want to finish it off now? Then we can go have a beer, and enjoy some Japanese truth. Or do you want to get to the bottom of why Cheryl Austin was killed?”

“I want to get to the bottom.”

“Me, too,” Co

17

Phillip Sanders was spi

Co

“An hour ago. Buildings and Grounds came by and told everybody in the lab to leave, and they locked it up. Just like that. There’s a big padlock on the front door, now.”

I said, “And the reason was?”

“A report that structural weakness in the ceiling has made the basement unsafe and will invalidate the university’s insurance if the skating rink comes crashing down on us. Some talk about how student safety comes first. Anyway, they closed the lab, pending an investigation and report by a structural engineer.”

“And when will that happen?”

He gestured to the phone. “I’m waiting to hear. Maybe some time next week. Maybe not until next month.”

“Next month.”

“Yeah, Exactly.” Sanders ran his hand through his wild hair. “I went all the way to the dean on this one. But the dean’s office doesn’t know. It’s coming from high up in the university. Up where the board of governors knows rich donors who make contributions in multi-million-dollar chunks. The order came from the highest levels.” Sanders laughed. “These days, it doesn’t leave much mystery.”

I said, “Meaning what?”

“You realize Japan is deeply into the structure of American universities, particularly in technical departments. It’s happened everywhere. Japanese companies now endow twenty-five professorships at M.I.T., far more than any other nation. Because they know—after all the bullshit stops—that they can’t i

“From American universities.”

“Sure. Listen, at the University of California at Irvine, there’s two floors of a research building that you can’t get into unless you have a Japanese passport. They’re doing research for Hitachi there. An American university closed to Americans.” Sanders swung around, waving his arms. “And around here, if something happens that they don’t like, it’s just a phone call from somebody to the president of the university, and what can he do? He can’t afford to piss the Japanese off. So whatever they want, they get. And if they want the lab closed, it’s closed.”

I said, “What about the tapes?”

“Everything is locked in there. They made us leave everything.”

“Really?”

“They were in a hell of a rush. It was gestapo stuff. Pushing and prodding us to get out. You can’t imagine the panic at an American university if it thinks it may lose some funding.” He sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe Theresa managed to take some tapes with her. You could ask her.”

“Where is she?”

“I think she went ice skating.”

I frowned. “Ice skating?”

“That’s what she said she was going to do. So you could check over there.”

And he looked right at Co

Theresa Asakuma wasn’t ice skating. There were thirty little kids in the rink, with a young teacher trying in vain to control them. They looked like fourth graders. Their laughter and yells echoed in the high ceiling of the rink.

The building was almost deserted, the bleachers empty. A handful of fraternity boys sat up in one corner, looking down and punching each other on the shoulder. On our side, up high, near the ceiling, a janitor mopped. A couple of adults who looked like parents stood at the railing, down near the ice. Opposite us, a man was reading a newspaper.

I didn’t see Theresa Asakuma anywhere.

Co

“Have a seat.”

“But you’re always in such a rush.”

“Have a seat. Enjoy life.”

I sat down next to him. We watched the kids skating around the perimeter of the ice. The teacher was shouting, “Alexander? Alexander! I’ve told you before. No hitting! Don’t you hit her!”

I leaned back against the bleachers. I tried to relax. Co

I said, “Do you think Sanders is right? The Japanese squeezed the university?”

“Sure,” Co

“And all that business about Japan buying into American technology? Buying professorships at M.I.T.?”

“It’s not illegal. They’re supporting scholarship. A noble ideal.”

I frowned. “So you think it’s okay?”

“No,” he said. “I don’t think it’s okay at all. If you give up control of your own institutions you give up everything. And generally, whoever pays for an institution controls it. If the Japanese are willing to put up the money—and if the American government and American industry aren’t—then the Japanese will control American education. You know they already own ten American colleges. Own them outright. Bought them for the training of their young people. So that they can be assured of the ability to send young Japanese to America.”

“But they already can do that. Lots of Japanese go to American universities.”

“Yes. But as usual, the Japanese are pla

I watched the kids skating in the rink. I listened to their laughter. I thought of my daughter. I thought of the four o’clock meeting.

I said, “Why are we sitting here?”

“Because,” he said.

So we sat there. The teacher was rounding the kids up now, leading them off the ice. “Skates off here. Skates off here, please. That means you too, Alexander! Alexander!”

“You know,” Co

“I thought you could. I thought the Japanese had liberalized their rules.”

Co

“I thought General Motors owns Isuzu.”