Colorado's Japanese Americans: From 1886 to the Present

22: The Imperials

T H E I M P E R I A L S P A G E 208 It is not easy to confirm this but Denver may be the only inland U.S. city visited on different occasions by three members of the Japanese imperial family. Prince Hitachi, the emperor’s younger brother, and his princess, Hanako, dropped in on Denver for several days in fall 1981. They were followed in 1985 by Crown Prince Hiro, who was on his way home after several years of study at Cambridge University in England . Then in early summer 1994 Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko came to Colorado for three days in the course of a twentyday trip that included stops in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York, St. Louis, Denver, and Los Angeles before heading for home by way of Honolulu. Compared to the receptions they received elsewhere , the imperial couple’s Colorado visit, while warm, was also low-key and relaxing, which is the way their aides had planned the c h a p t e r t w e n t y - t w o T H E I M P E R I A L S T H E I M P E R I A L S P A G E 209 trip. In Washington, D.C., they were received by President Clinton with great pomp and ceremony at the White House. In Colorado they watched tractors chewing up the dirt on a corn and onion farm and went to the mountains hoping to see bighorn sheep, which didn’t bother to show up for the royal visitors. The one thing done by all three royal parties was a visit to Bob and Joanna Sakata’s farm in Brighton. Prince Hitachi and Princess Hanako, who came to Denver in September 1981, stayed in a suite at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Denver. They called on Governor Lamm—Princess Hanako knew all about the statehouse step that is exactly one mile above sea level—and planted a tree at the Botanic Gardens before briefly visiting Sakura Square. At the Sakata home they had lunch—featuring Sakata corn on the cob—with a few prominent locals before a short tour of the fields. One day they were driven to Rocky Mountain National Park for a picnic lunch prepared by Kazuko Johnson’s Kyoto restaurant. Afterward, the party drove up Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet (Mount Fuji is 12,388 feet tall) and rubbed elbows with throngs of tourists none of whom had any idea who the Japanese visitors were. Prince Hiro’s visit, in late summer 1985, was somewhat more eventful. Corn season was over but Bob Sakata had left several rows unharvested. The prince climbed aboard a massive tractor and held the controls while it lurched forward, grumbling loudly while it swallowed cornstalks and spit out a stream of ripe ears. After visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, the prince, wearing a cowboy hat he had received as a gift, had a buffet dinner at the University of Colorado with a number of students from Japan. As a memento the university gave the Prince a CU football helmet, which was about a dozen sizes too large. T H E I M P E R I A L S P A G E 210 The highlight of the prince’s visit was an informal dinner for his traveling party and a few Denverites at the Palace Arms of the Brown Palace Hotel. This next point is a matter of dispute. One version is that a member of the prince’s party asked one of the locals to invite Bob Sakata’s attractive and unmarried young daughter, Lani, to the dinner to brighten things up a bit. Another version is that the prince, having met Lani at the Sakata farm, suggested that she be invited. In any event Lani’s mother gave her permission, and Lani did attend, and one of the locals escorted her home immediately after the meal. Preparations for the emperor’s visit to Denver began long before it was announced that he and the empress were coming to the United States. A three-day, two-night stay was planned and so housing had to be arranged. A location not in downtown Denver was sought, perhaps in a quiet place like Boulder, which would be convenient for a planned...