for him. Which was the greater disgrace? He didn’t know.
He did know that he could not bring himself to make the telephone call to
hi* American counterpart. It would have been an exercise in futility, just like
hit entire career, he now realized. The book was already written. Let some-
one else provide the final chapter.
11
Sea Change
The Trade Reform Act by now had two hundred bipartisan cosponsors.
Committee hearings had been unusually brief, largely because few had the
courage to testify against it. Remarkably, a major Washington public-rela-
tions firm terminated its contract with a Japanese conglomerate, and since it
was a PR firm, put out a press release to that effect announcing the end of a
fourteen-year relationship. The combination of the event at Oak Ridge and
Al Trent’s often-quoted barb at a senior lobbyist had made life most uncom-
fortable for those in foreign employ who stalked the halls of Congress. Lob-
byists didn’t impede the bill at all. As a man, they reported back to their
employers that the bill simply could not fail passage, that any disabling
changes in the bill were quite impossible, and the only possible reaction to it
would be to take the long view and ride it out. In time, their friends in Con-
gress would be able to support them again, just not now.
Just not now? The cynical definition of a good politician was the same in
Japan as it was in America: a public servant who, once bought, stayed
bought. The employers thought of all the money contributed to so many
campaign funds, the thousand-dollar dinner-plates covered with mediocre
food bought by (actually for) American employees of their multinational
corporations, the trips to golf courses, the entertainment on fact-finding trips
to Japan and elsewhere, the personal contact-and realized that all of it mat-
tered not a bit the one time that it really mattered. America just wasn’t like
Japan at all. Its legislators didn’t feel the obligation to pay back, and the
lobbyists, also bought and paid for, told them that it had to be this way.
What, then, had they spent all that money for?
Take the long view? The long view was all well and good, so long as the
immediate prospect was pleasant and uncluttered. Circumstances had per-
mitted Japan the long view for nearly forty years. But today it no longer
applied. On Wednesday, the Fourth, the day the Trade Reform Act cleared
committee, the Nikkei Dow fell to 12,841 yen, roughly a third of what it had
been in recent memory, and the panic in the country was quite real now.
” ‘Plum blossoms bloom, and pleasure-women buy new scarves in a brothel
room.’ ”
The words might have been poetic in Japanese-it was a famous haiku-
but it didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense in English, Clark thought. At least
not to him, but the effect on the man in front of him was noteworthy. “Oleg
Yurievich sends his greetings.”
“It has been a long time,” the man stammered after perhaps five seconds
of well-concealed panic.
“Things have been difficult at home,” Clark explained, a slight accent in
his voice.
Isamu Kimura was a senior official in the Ministry for International Trade
and Industry, MITI, the centerpiece of an enterprise once called “Japan,
Inc.” As such he often met with foreigners, especially foreign reporters, and
so he had accepted the invitation of Ivan Sergeyevich Klerk, newly arrived
in Japan from Moscow, complete with a photographer who was elsewhere
shooting pictures.
“It would seem to be a difficult time for your country as well,” Klerk
added, wondering what sort of reaction it would get. He had to be a little
tough with the guy. It was possible that he’d resist the idea of being reac-
tivated after more than two years of no contacts. If so, KGB policy was to
make it clear that once they had their hooks into you, those hooks never went
away. It was also CIA policy, of course.
“It’s a nightmare,” Kimura said after a few seconds’ reflection and a
deep draft of the sake on the table.
“If you think the Americans are difficult, you should be a Russian. The
country in which I grew up, which nurtured and trained me-is no more. Do
you realize that I must actually support myself with my Interfax work? I
can’t even perform my duties on a full-time basis.” Clark shook his head
ruefully and emptied his own cup.
“Your English is excellent.”
The “Russian” nodded politely, taking the remark as surrender on the
part of the man across the table. “Thank you. I worked for years in New
York, covering the U.N. forPravda. Among other things,” he added.
‘ ‘Really?” Kimura asked.’ ‘What do you know of American business and
politics?”
“I specialized in commercial work. The new world’s circumstances allow
me to pursue it with even more vigor, and your services are highly valued by
my country. We will be able to reward you even more in the future, my
friend.”
Kimura shook his head. “I have no time for that now. My office is in a
very confused state, for obvious reasons.”
“I understand. This meeting is in the manner of a get-acquainted session.
We have no immediate demands.”
“And how is Oleg?” the MITI official asked.
“He has a good life now, a very comfortable position because of the fine
work you did for him.” Which wasn’t a lie at all. Lyalin-was alive, and that
beat the hell out of a bullet to the head in the basement of KGB Headquar-
ters. This man was the agent who’d given Lyalin the information which had
placed them in Mexico. It seemed a shame to Clark that he couldn’t thank
the man personally for his part in averting a nuclear war. “So tell me, in my
reporter identity: how bad is the situation with America? I have a story to
file, you see.” The answer would surprise him almost as much as the vehe-
mence of its tone.
Isamu Kimura looked down. “It could bring ruin to us.”
“Is it really that bad?” “Klerk” asked in surprise, taking out his pad to
make notes like a good reporter.
“It will mean a trade war.” It was all the man could do to speak that one
sentence.
“Well, such a war will do harm to both countries, yes?” Clark had heard
that one often enough that he actually believed it.
“We’ve been saying that for years, but it’s a lie. It’s really very simple,”
Kimura went on, assuming that this Russian needed an education in the capi-
talist facts of life, not knowing that he was an American who did. “We need
their market to sell our manufactured goods. Do you know what a trade war
means? It means that they stop buying our manufactured goods, and that
they keep their money. That money will go into their own industries, which
we have trained, after a fashion, to be more efficient. Those industries will
grow and prosper by following our example, and in doing so they will regain
market share in areas which we have dominated for twenty years. If we lose
our market position, we may never get it all back.”
“And why is that?” Clark asked, scribbling furiously and finding himself
actually quite interested.
‘ ‘When we entered the American market, the yen had only about a third of
the value it has today. That enabled us to be highly competitive in our pric-
ing. Then as we established a place within the American market, achieved
brand-name recognition, and so forth, we were able to increase our prices
while retaining our market share, even expanding it in many areas despite
the increasing value of the yen. To accomplish the same thing today would
be far more difficult.”
Fabulous news, Clark thought behind a studiously passive face. ‘ ‘But will
they be able to replace all the things you make for them?”
“Through their own workers? All of them? Probably noi. Inn (hoy don’I
have to. Last year automobiles and related products accounted lor sixty-one
percent of our trade with America. The Americans know how lo make
cars-what they did not know we have taught them,” Kimura said, leaning
forward. “In other areas, cameras for example, they are now made else-
where, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia. The same is true of consumer electron-
ics. Klerk-san, nobody really understands what is happening yet.”
“The Americans can really do this much damage to you? Is it possible?”
Damn, Clark thought, maybe it was.
“It is very possible. My country has not faced such a possibility since
1941.” The statement was accidental, but Kimura noted the accuracy of it
the instant it escaped his lips.
“I can’t put that in a news story. It’s too alarmist.”
Kimura looked up. “That was not meant for a news story. I know your
agency has contacts with the Americans. It has to. They are not listening to