Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 3, 1985

I woke up Mehdi to eat breakfast and go after work with the children. Ahmad Agha's son Hasan was with us like my children - Yasir and Mehdi. I exercised a little and watched some TV after taking a shower. A Japanese TV channel is owned by the Americans and has interesting programs in English, and these days they have a propaganda attack about terrorism on the occasion of the release of the passengers of the hijacked American plane in Lebanon. They probably want to overshadow our presence in Japan and somehow relate the current to us through Shia and Islamic Jihad. The Japanese, in order to take the poison of the matter, want us to condemn terrorism explicitly.

Ministers of Industry and Industrial Relations met with Japan's foreign affairs and planning, and after general negotiations with me, they continued negotiations with Mr. Aghazadeh and other presenters. I did an interview with Yomiuri newspaper. I had a meeting with representatives of Islamic associations. They said that 20 Islamic societies are active in Japan and there are 100 thousand Muslims in this country, and they had differences. They talked in front of me and asked for help to build the mosque.

We were guests of the Federation of Economic Organizations of Japan for lunch. They said that they can work and be effective for Iran. I spoke to them after lunch. In the evening, I participated in a press interview at the journalists' club. Too many reporters had come. I answered their questions about the war, America, the issue of terrorism, buying weapons, etc. I participated and gave a speech at the evening banquet of the Iran Friendship Association in Japan and the Parliamentary and Friendship Association of Iran and Japan.

The presidents of the two associations spoke kindly. Most of them are people who are somehow related to companies working in Iran. The old ambassadors of Japan in Iran are also among them.

At half past six, the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign Minister came to the palace for a private meeting. We summarized the results of the trip, which are completely positive. It was agreed that they will buy more oil from us and we will pay the foreign exchange share of the projects with oil and have more cooperation regarding handing over the project to Japan.

They asked for our opinion about the relationship with America. I said that America should make up for its bad past in order to provide the ground for establishing relations and this needs time, and we also sent a message to the West that we do not want tension in the region. On my behalf, there was a banquet for dinner in the palace where I was staying, which was attended by a delegation of Japanese dignitaries and some Islamic ambassadors, and it ended at half past nine. The Speaker of the National Assembly of Japan is from Nagasaki and he himself saw and heard the sound of the atomic bomb explosion [in 1945] from a distance of forty kilometers.

Mr. Aghazadeh came and reported his negotiations. He is satisfied and believes that there is a good spirit in the Japanese for cooperation. Today, they praised my speech last night and talked about its influence in Japan.