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- NATION, Page 33American NotesPOLITICSNo Laughing Matter
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- South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings jumped on the
- Japan-bashing bandwagon in grand -- and tasteless -- style last
- week. Speaking to a group of workers at a home-state
- roller-bearing manufacturing plant, the loose-tongued
- 70-year-old Democrat said he had a message for Japanese
- officials who have questioned the competence of the U.S. work
- force. He advised them to think of the atomic mushroom cloud and
- recall that it was "made in America by illiterate Americans and
- tested in Japan."
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- While the reference to the U.S. nuclear bombings of
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki drew loud applause from the assembled
- factory workers, it attracted swift condemnation from the White
- House and many of Hollings' congressional colleagues -- not to
- mention Japanese survivors of the 1945 blasts. The Japanese
- government said little about the remark when it was widely
- reported in Tokyo. But the Senator was unrepentant. "I'm
- defending against America bashing," he said. "When you defend
- America, they want you to apologize."
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