During a debate in the last presidential campaign, Rep. Dennis Kucinich copped to having sighted a triangular UFO. This brought about guffaws from press and populace alike and undermined Kucinich's credibility...what little he had left.
Doesn't work that way in Japan, it seems. I had originally heard the following story last fall but never did any follow up on it. Too busy studying for the GRE so I could get that high score I got (HA! Look where it got me!) But I think it's about time I bring the tidbit here to Strange Horizons.
Miyuki Hatoyama, First Lady of Japan, has openly admitted that she once rode in a UFO. In a book she has written entitled Very Strange Things I've Encountered, Miyuki describes the encounter as having taken place about 20 years ago.
"While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," she said. Upon awakening from this, she told her now ex-husband the tale and he offered that she probably just had a dream. Their marriage then proceeded to go downhill.
"My current husband has a different way of thinking," she wrote. "He would surely say 'Oh, that's great'." Click here for the story.
Though the First Lady of Japan has drawn her share of giggles as a result of this disclosure, it doesn't seem to have hurt her or her husband. Perhaps it's a sign of how desensitized we've become to people purporting Fortean encounters. Yes, we've come a long way from Jimmy Carter's much ridiculed UFO sighting and I for one have no problem with a political leader admitting such a thing. After all, is it any crazier for Hatoyama to claim she's visited Venus than it is for Americans to expect their leaders to believe that a man walked on water, performed miraculous healing, was killed and then came back to life before flying into the sky? I don't think so, and I'm a Christian.
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On Facebook, Ghost Dogg points out that such disclosures and admissions didn't hurt Nancy Reagan, either:
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not UFOs, but it has to do with stars...Nancy Reagan, on whether astrology prevented a 2nd assassination on Ronald: "I don't know that it did prevent it, but I don't know that it didn't prevent it..."