T Akiyama - 22.07.1942

[Orionid]

Toyohiro Akiyama odbył lot kosmiczny jako reporter telewizyjny TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System).

Jest 239. człowiekiem w kosmosie oraz 1. Japończykiem, a także pierwszym dziennikarzem, który odbył lot kosmiczny.

Odbył 1 lot kosmiczny:
02.12.1990-10.12.1990 Sojuz TM-11 Mir OE-8/Kosmoreporter Derbent / Sojuz TM-10 Mir OE-7 Wulkan 007:21:54:40

1966 ukończył studia na Wydziale Nauk Społecznych Międzynarodowego Uniwersytetu Chrześcijańskiego w Tokio.

04.1966 rozpoczął pracę w dziale wiadomości radiowych Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS).

12.1967-1970 pracował w Londynie dla British Broadcasting Corporation BBS, uczestnicząc w produkcji programów i reportażach dla japońskich audycji BBS World Service.

1970 rozpoczął pracę jako starszy redaktor i komentator międzynarodowego programu informacyjnego TBS, a także pracował jako reporter w departamencie politycznym Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych.

1984-1988 pracował jako dyrektor biura korespondencyjnego TBS w Waszyngtonie (USA).

1989 został redaktorem naczelnym działu wiadomości międzynarodowych w TBS.

16.08.1989 został wybrany jako jeden z siedmiu finalistów w konkursie rekrutacyjnym zorganizowanym przez TBS.

14.09.1989 po posiedzeniu komisji w Moskwie, został uznany za jednego z dwóch głównych kandydatów na komercyjny lot radziecko-japoński.

02.10.1989 na konferencji prasowej w Japonii został oficjalnie przedstawiony dziennikarzom i wysłany na szkolenie do CPK jako główny kosmonauta-badacz załogi.

Współautor, wraz z Ryoko Kikuchi, książki "Kosmiczny korespondent -Poleciałem w kosmos!”.

Po locie pracował jako zastępca dyrektora działu informacyjnego TBS.

1995 opuścił TVS w 1995 i zajął się prywatnym biznesem.

http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/akiyama_toyohiro.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/a/akiyama.html
https://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/a/akiyama-t.php

https://mek.kosmo.cz/bio/ostatni/00239.htm
https://www.kozmo-data.sk/kozmonauti/akiyama-tojohiro.html
https://www.astronaut.ru/crossroad/242.htm
https://www.april12.eu/otherastron/akiyama239ru.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohiro_Akiyama
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohiro_Akiyama

https://dbpedia.org/page/Toyohiro_Akiyama
https://ultimatepopculture.fandom.com/wiki/Toyohiro_Akiyama

https://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Language-Reference-Toyohiro-Akiyama/s?rh=n%3A11773%2Cp_27%3AToyohiro+Akiyama

22 juillet
Bon anniversaire (81) à Toyohiro Akiyama🎂🎂🎂
(1er japonais dans l'espace, même non officiel, lors de Soyouz TM-11 en décembre 1990 - une des pires expériences de sa vie ayant été malade de l'espace quasiment les 8 jours de son vol)

https://twitter.com/spacemen1969/status/1815145477551120458
https://twitter.com/ASE_Astronauts/status/1550450800329166849

#ASEspotlight: Toyohiro Akiyama 💫
ASE member Akiyama interviewed President Reagan in 1985 as the Tokyo Broadcasting System chief correspondent in Washington D.C.
Fun fact: He was the first Japanese citizen and first journalist to fly in space!
Happy 80th birthday, Tom! 🎉

2023 https://x.com/ASE_Astronauts/status/1682737462873817088
2023 https://x.com/spacemen1969/status/1682632817891483648

[mss]

Tak nawiasem pisząc: To prawda, że ​​​​Ryoko nigdy nie została oficjalnie wymieniona jako rezerwowy na posiedzeniu Komisji Państwowej przed startem: będąc już na Bajkonurze 25 listopada 1990 miała atak zapalenia wyrostka robaczkowego. Następnego dnia przeszła operację w miejscowym szpitalu wojskowym. Ryoko szybko zaczęła wracać do zdrowia, ale 1 grudnia 1990 na posiedzeniu Komisji Państwowej była obecna jedynie jako gość.

Załączam fotografię z dnia (02.12.1990) sprzed startu Sojuza TM-11 na którym widać załogę podstawową i jako dublerzy jedynie dwójka:
Anatolij Pawłowicz Arcebarskij i Siergiej Konstantinowicz Krikalow!

[Orionid]

Nieco interesujących szczegółów

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1at08tu/til_that_the_first_japanese_person_to_be_sent_to/

Toyohiro Akiyama: Cautionary tales from one not afraid to risk all
By Tomoko Otake Staff Writer Aug 3, 2013


Down to earth: Former astronaut Toyohiro Akiyama, who now teaches agriculture at Kyoto University of Art and Design, believes that working on the land helps artistically minded students to open their minds and so nurture their creativity. | TOMOKO OTAKE

Astronaut-newshound -professor Toyohiro Akiyama explains how the farming life helps him plow fertile political ground in Japan and worldwide

In December 1990, journalist Toyohiro Akiyama made headlines the world over when he blasted off aboard a Soviet rocket to become the very first "space correspondent" in history.

The Soyuz capsule with the 47-year-old Tokyo Broadcasting System reporter strapped inside later docked with the Mir space station as part of an unprecedented $10 million (¥1.5 billion) deal between the USSR's cash-starved space agency and the ratings-hungry private TV network.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/08/03/people/toyohiro-akiyama-cautionary-tales-from-one-not-afraid-to-risk-all/


https://www.kosmonavtika.com/cosmoperso/cosmonautes/etrangers/akiyama/akiyama.html

[mss]

Stephane SEBILE @spacemen1969
22 juillet

Bon anniversaire (83) à Toyohiro Akiyama 🎂🎂🎂
(1er japonais dans l'espace, même non officiel, lors de Soyouz TM-11 en décembre 1990 - ''une des pires expériences de sa vie'' ayant souffert du mal de l'espace quasiment les 8 jours de son vol)

https://twitter.com/spacemen1969/status/1947417049543713258

[Orionid]

Podobna sytuacja, jak w Australii w 2025.
W misji  Fram2 kto inny okazał się pierwszym Australijczykiem pod egidą tego kraju.

Soviets Send First Japanese, a Journalist, Into Space
By David E. Sanger, Special To the New York Times Dec. 3, 1990

A Japanese television reporter blasted into space today aboard a Soyuz rocket as part of a $12 million deal to help satisfy the Soviet Union's desperate need for hard currency and a Tokyo television network's hunger to win a ratings war.

The reporter, Toyohiro Akiyama, is the first journalist ever sent into space. But more important to this country, uncertain where its own space program is going, he is also the first Japanese to be sent into space.

Japan's space agency, which hoped that the first-in-space title would go to one of its astronauts scheduled to ride the American space shuttle next year, has made no secret of its displeasure that one of the country's most competitive private television networks is stealing the title. Japan's space program has long been closely tied to the United States' program, and Government officials are clearly uphappy with the use of Soviet equipment to get Mr. Akiyama into space. Moving Toward Reconciliation

But the Government could not complain too loudly, in part because the mission has signaled that business and diplomatic realities are advancing the slow reconciliation between the two nations. A territorial dispute over four northern islands has kept Japan from signing a formal peace treaty with the Soviets ending World War II, and officials here are looking for any signs that the dispute could be settled in time for next year's planned visit to Tokyo by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The mission is the most visible evidence yet of the Soviet space agency's willingness to sell its services in order to keep its financially hard-pressed space program alive. But even by Japanese standards, the project to send Mr. Akiyama into space is a tribute to the cosmic possibilities of commercialism.

When the Soyuz TM-11 rocket was launched at 1:13 P.M. (3:13 A.M. Eastern standard time) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, with a Japanese rising sun painted on its sides, it was also decorated with the logotypes for two Japanese corporate sponsors, a pharmaceutical company and a manufacturer of sanitary napkins. Other sponsors, including Minolta Camera and a maker of karaoke equipment, a sing-along sound system, had their messages painted on the launching pad. Still others vied for space on the astronauts' T-shirts.

All this is paying for the Soviets to get two of their own astronauts up to the Mir-2 space station, which has been in orbit since February 1986. The two crew members, Viktor Afansev and Musa Manarov, are scheduled to spend 169 days aboard the space station. Mr. Manarov has already spent a year in space, ending in December 1988.

Mr. Akiyama will return in eight days with Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov, the current Mir crew, who have spent four months in space.

"The Soviets need money," Mr. Akiyama said last week from the Soviet Union. "Their space industry has to be competitive, like the French, Chinese and Americans have begun to be."

The country he left out is Japan itself, which, despite its reservoir of talent, has never built a manned craft. Space industry executives say there are a number of reasons, from inexperience to an absence of any political will to fears about who would take responsibility in the event of an accident.

None of that seems to have deterred the star of the show, Mr. Akiyama, a former Washington bureau chief of the Tokyo Broadcasting System. The broadcaster is in a ratings struggle with several other private networks and the staid NHK, the public network. Scenes of Training

For months now, Japanese television viewers have been treated to scenes of the 48-year-old Mr. Akiyama training for the mission at Baikonur, and trying to get into good enough shape to meet the Russians' standards. The most difficult part of the battle, Mr. Akiyama has said, is giving up cigarettes.

"If I work hard and I'm successful, then I expect to get a bonus," Mr. Akiyama said, speaking in terms that millions of Japanese workers can understand. "If I get space sickness, then it should be counted as sick leave."

Mr. Akiyama will periodically file reports, and today more than 120 of the network's reporters and technicians reported from the launching site. Mr. Akiyama is also going where no journalist has gone before, though the American space agency did once propose a journalist-in-space program. It was shelved after the Challenger disaster in 1986.

The mission is rooted more in good television than in good science, though Mr. Akiyama is carrying into space a number of Japanese tree frogs to see how they adjust to weightlessness. He is also carring some amulets, including one given to him by Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and one given by the president of his company.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/03/us/soviets-send-first-japanese-a-journalist-into-space.html

A Japanese Innovation: The Space Antihero
By David E. Sanger, Special To the New York Times Dec. 8, 1990

For those who complain that Japanese exploit Western technology without contributing much basic research in return, here are a few of this week's discoveries from Japan's first manned mission into space:

As seen from the Soviet space station Mir, where a Japanese television reporter, Toyohiro Akiyama, is racking up charges of $1.5 million a night, the oceans around Japan "look very muddy," suggesting that the country might have a pollution problem.

*Fat Japanese frogs in space love the feeling of weightlessness. Thin Japanese frogs act as if they would rather be back in Yokohama.

*The attention span of the average Japanese viewer watching the exploits of their first countryman in space is about 10 minutes long. They tend to switch the channel when the topic turns, as it has most nights, to the difficulties of ridding oneself of bodily wastes in zero gravity.

Of those three findings, the last may be the most startling. When the Tokyo Broadcasting System announced more than a year ago that it would seek a cosmic boost in ratings by paying the Soviet Union a reported $12 million to launch the first journalist into space, it was widely assumed that Mr. Akiyama would become a national hero. After all, he was going where no Japanese dared venture before.

But once in orbit, the 48-year-old former Washington bureau chief was the first to admit that maybe, despite a year and a half of rigorous training with the Soviet astronauts, he lacked a bit of the right stuff.

Struggling through the first of his nightly live broadcasts from the heavens, Mr. Akiyama spent a lot of time describing the uglier details of space sickness. A chain smoker, he repeatedly longed for a cigarette. His brain, he complained, felt as if it was "floating around in my head." Told to pack light, he failed to bring along enough underwear.

Still, Mr. Akiyama's mission represents a first, and one that neither American nor Japanese space officials are very happy about. The first Japanese national in space was supposed to be a real astronaut, trained to go aboard the American space shuttle in the mid-1980's.

But the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 delayed that for years, and this week United States announced that the mission would be delayed again, this time until 1992.

So with the Japanese slowly souring on the United States space program, Tokyo Broadcasting decided to take the Soviet Union up on its newly declared interest in trading hard currency for seats on flights to the four-year-old Mir. After putting television crews and relay stations in place around the world, Tokyo Broadcasting began the biggest publicity stunt in the history of Japanese television.

By tonight, the star of the show seemed to be feeling a bit better, apologizing for the rudeness of broadcasting while he appeared to be standing on his head. He showed viewers around his quarters and regained a bit of his appetite.

At dinnertime he mused, "I wish I had brought along some natto," the smelly, fermented soybeans that even many Japanese say they cannot bring themselves to swallow.

For their part, though, many Japanese decided by midweek that they had seen the future and, for now, were satisfied to stick to the bullet trains. Ratings Surge, Then Fizzle

After an initial surge in ratings that elated Tokyo Broadcasting and the mission's commercial sponsors -- from American Express Japan and Sony to Minolta and a sanitary napkin manufacturer, which had its logotype painted on the side of the Soyuz rocket -- the network's share has fallen back to slightly above normal. With only a few days left in the mission, it looks as if the network's hopes of permanently grabbing a bigger slice of one of the world's most competitive television markets may be lost in the intergalactic void.

Still, for the devoted viewer the mission has generated a steady trickle of informative tidbits, especially for Japanese who see space as the ultimate real estate opportunity once Hawaii gets too expensive.

For example, there was Mr. Akiyama's dream the other night that his mother, who died last year, had come back to visit him in his "apartment in the city of stars."

"She came and looked around, and said 'Oh, you live in such a big place!' " he recalled, broadcasting back to the only industrialized country where the Mir spacecraft might look like spacious living quarters. View of Mount Fuji

Then there was the reassuring news that Mount Fuji, the symbol of all things Japanese, can be seen from the remoteness of low earth orbit. "It's so pretty," his co-anchors on the ground cooed, even though the majestic mountain was reduced to a small white patch.

Mr. Akiyama observed that his homeland "looks like it has moss all over," except for Hokkaido, the northermost of the Japanese islands, which "looks like delicious kelp."

Not surprisingly, there have been a few hitches. What the network portrayed as Mr. Akiyama's first steps into the Mir space station, where two astronauts presented him with the traditional Russian gift of bread and salt, was actually staged for prime-time viewers. Japanese reporters on the ground were later told that their colleague had slipped into the station a bit earlier to set things up.

Then there is the saga of the the six green tree frogs, sent aloft as an experiment for Japanese schoolchildren. Perhaps suffering from the same affliction that hit Mr. Akiyama, they have gone on an orbital hunger strike. Everyone is quite puzzled why the fatter frogs seem to enjoy the freedom of weightlessness, while the thin frogs, in Mr. Akiyama's words, "are not adjusting well." Frogs' Legs Are Fare for Analysis

For the record, in simulated-weightlessness experiments on Earth, frogs spread out their feet like skydivers. But in space, they do not, and scientists here have spent endless airtime hours trying to analyze the phenomenon.

Mr. Akiyama seems like a man who wants nothing more than a chance to get back home, open a beer and light up. He worries that his children are spending too much time in front of the television, even if it is to watch their father bounce into his astronaut colleagues.

"Please tell Ken-ken and Naoko to study," he radioed to his wife the other day.

"The children are doing fine," his wife, Kyoko, told him. "Please try to relax."
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/08/world/a-japanese-innovation-the-space-antihero.html

[Orionid]

Dziennikarz podczas pracy

President Reagan during an Interview with Television Reporters and Journalists on April 29, 1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=O6gqHkH7sZs

Zapis powyższego wywiadu.

Interview With Foreign Journalists
April 29, 1985

President's Trip to Germany

Q. Mr. President, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to talk to you before your trip to Europe. My name is Fritz Pleitgen. I'm with German Television. May I introduce to you my colleagues.

Here to my left, Gerard Saint-Paul, TF - 1, France. Jon Snow, ITN, Great Britain. Toyohiro Akiyama, TBS, Japan. Sergio Telmon, RAI, Italy. And last, not least, Joseph Schlesinger, CBC, Canada.

And now, my first question. The controversy over your intended Bitburg cemetery visit is sharpening, and it overshadows the economic summit, and it spoils your idea of reconciliation. The Congress urge you not to go. The veterans urge you not to go. And the Holocaust victims urge you not to go. And the majority of the American people are against this visit. Mr. President, how does this turmoil of emotions affect you personally and politically and has the final word been spoken on Bitburg?

The President. The final word has been spoken as far as I'm concerned. I think it is morally right to do what I'm doing, and I'm not going to change my mind about that.

I don't believe it actually has affected a majority of the people here. As a matter of fact, some of our own people have done polls and surveys and reveal that this is not of that great a concern.

Now, I can understand how some of the people feel, because very frankly I don't believe that many of your American colleagues -- in that sense, I mean in the press -- have been quite fair about this. I think they've gotten a hold of something, and, like a dog worrying a bone, they're going to keep on chewing on it. But this all came about out of a very sincere desire of Chancellor Kohl and myself to recognize this 40th anniversary of the war's end -- and incidentally it's the 30th anniversary of our relationship as allies at NATO -- that shouldn't we look at this and recognize that the unusual thing that has happened -- that in these 40 years since the end of that war, the end of that tragedy of the Holocaust, we have become the friends that we are, and use this occasion to make it plain that never again must we find ourselves enemy, and never again must there be anything like the Holocaust.

And if that is what we can bring out of these observances and the trip that has been planned, then I think everything we're doing is very worthwhile.

Q. But there have been made mistakes in Bonn and in Washington, and isn't it yours and Chancellor Kohl's obligation to correct these mistakes and solve this crisis?

The President. Well, I'm not sure that I agree about mistakes. There have been mistakes with regard to information that was given on the various locales. Let me just point out one place in which I think the whole distortion started. And it started with me, perhaps in answering, incompletely, a question.

When the invitation came to a state visit -- and for the purpose that I've mentioned, because the Chancellor and I had talked about this, that there's no longer, after 40 years, a time when we should be out shooting off fireworks and celebrating a victory or commiserating a victory or a defeat.

This is a time to recognize that after years and years, centuries, indeed, of wars being settled in such a way that they planted the seeds of the next war and left hatreds that grew and grew until there would be another war, that the miracle that has happened, that has brought 40 years of peace and 40 years of alliance, that those countries that were of the Axis and the countries of the allies -- we're sitting down together in the summit -- and do this every year -- and we're friends and allies, that this was the thing that we were seeking to do.

But the distortion came when I received what seemed to be a private invitation to go to one of the concentration camps, and I didn't see any way that I, as a guest of the state and of the Government of Germany, could take off on my own and go, and that might then look as if I was trying to do something different than the purpose that we had in mind. And I received a cable from Chancellor Kohl that no, such a visit to -- and it will be Bergen-Belsen -- was included in the trip, and I immediately accepted. I thought it was appropriate in that way.

The thing I thought was inappropriate, when it seemed that someone else was asking me to simply step away from the plans that were being made for me as a guest and go off on my own, and other than that mistake, I think that what has been planned is all in the spirit of recognizing what has been achieved. Your country now has the most democratic government it has ever had in its existence. You are, and have been for 30 years, one of the principal allies in the NATO defense for Western Europe and of the United States. And this is what we're seeking to recognize.

But at the same time, I think I'm free to say, just as your own people have said, and that is that we all must never forget what did take place and be pledged to the fact it must never take place again.

[Orionid]

(2)

Q. Mr. President, sorry to insist on that, but the news report published in the New York Times says that some SS buried in Bitburg maybe participated in a massacre in Oradour. Oradour is a village in the south of France. And there were altogether 642 victims. Did you know that? How would you comment on that?

The President. Yes, I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform for 4 years myself. And again, all of those -- you're asking with reference to people who are in the cemetery, who are buried there. Well, I've said to some of my friends about that, all of those in that cemetery have long since met the supreme judge of right and wrong. And whatever punishment or justice was needed has been rendered by one who is above us all.

And it isn't going there to honor anyone. It's going there simply to, in that surrounding, more visibly bring to the people an awareness of the great reconciliation that has taken place and, as I've said before -- too many times, I guess -- the need to remember in the sense of being pledged to never letting it happen again.

Q. So, we go back to the Bonn summit, Mr. President. This summit could be a contribution to Western unity.

The President. Yes.

Strategic Defense Initiative

Q. But SDI, your strategic initiative of defense, does not provoke unanimity. For instance, President Mitterrand of France said yesterday in my TV station that the SDI technology is very interesting, but the strategy is maybe wrong. What do you answer to that?

The President. Well, perhaps at the summit if that subject comes up, perhaps I can clarify things for him so he'll understand what it is that we have in mind.

First of all, let us be perfectly aware that the Soviet Union has, over a longer period of time, has already embarked on that kind of research. And what would be the plight of all of us if the Soviet Union, which has the most and greatest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world, also had with it a defense against nuclear weapons and the rest of the world didn't?

Now, what I think President Mitterrand needs to know is that all we're embarking on is research to see if there is the potential for a defensive weapon. And if there is, before any deployment took place, we would join with our allies -- you, the countries that are represented here -- with regard to any deployment and what our strategy regarding the use of that weapon should be.

But as it stands now, the world is faced with a threat in which our only deterrent against nuclear attack is to threaten retaliation so that in a sense we're saying if you wipe out millions of our people, we'll wipe out millions of yours. And it seems to me that if there is the possibility of having a deterrent that is more based on defensive weapons, which don't kill people but only kill weapons, that then we should be moving in that direction at the same time that we continue our effort to get the reduction between us of nuclear weapons.

May I also say I know that President Mitterrand as well as Prime Minister Thatcher have problems in their own countries with regard to the support for your own nuclear arsenals. And because we're just going into a research and we don't know how long this is going to take, I am in full support of England and France continuing to go forward with their own programs of nuclear defense, nuclear deterrent.

Q. Mr. President, you suggested that this was a good moment to explain to anyone who wasn't certain -- to President Mitterrand and others -- the benefits of SDI. Yet wouldn't it perhaps have been a better idea to explain all this and talk it out with the allies before you announced it? Isn't there a sense in this, perhaps mirroring our first issue which was that of how to celebrate 40 years of peace, isn't there a sense in which you have announced moves and only afterwards had to get the allies agreement?

The President. Well, I can't remember the exact context of how an announcement was made or whether it was simply contained in our request going to our own legislature for the funding of such research. But as quickly as we could, we did go -- and at the military level and at a higher level -- we sent representatives over to brief all of the heads of your seven states as well as deal with your own military and our military leadership on this.

Nicaragua Peace Proposal

Q. Your aides say that you're very upbeat as you move towards this summit. Yet it's not been a good week for the person we've come to know as the Great Communicator. Is there any sense, particularly thinking of the contra vote and the confusion about Bitburg, is there any sense in which you feel something's happened to the Great Communicator in the last 10 days or so?

The President. No. I've had 4 years of fighting with the recognition that one House of our legislature is of the opposing party, as a majority of the opposing party. And your parliamentary systems -- you don't have such things; the party and the individual are the same. But then, I had the experience of 7 out of 8 years as Governor of California having a hostile legislature, and yet we managed to accomplish a great many things. I have not given up on contra. Our position and the problem in Nicaragua, the vote up there and the debate, whether they admitted it or not, is simply: Do they want another totalitarian Marxist-Leninist government, like Cuba's, now on the mainland of the Americas, or do they want the people of Nicaragua to have the democracy that they're willing to fight for and that they did fight for in overthrowing the Somoza dictatorship?

And whatever way they may want to frame it, the opponents in the Congress of ours, who have opposed our trying to continue helping those people, they really are voting to have a totalitarian Marxist-Leninist government here in the Americas, and there's no way for them to disguise it. So, we're not going to give up.

As for the budget, we've just started that fight, and I'm determined that we're going to carry through with a plan that puts us back on a course that ends deficit spending.

But no, I don't feel I've been destroyed.

U.S. Trade Negotiations

Q. Mr. President, let me change the subject. You have indicated your intention beginning a new round of trade talks. Given that some European countries may need some encouragement or some incentives to start talking early 1986, what would you do at the summit to try to encourage them?

The President. Well, I think that this is one of the subjects -- it always has been -- at the summits that we talk about, is the opposing of the forces in each of our countries who want increased protectionism in trade. Protectionism has never been successful, and it usually ends up creating great economic problems for everyone.

We have had some fine bilateral discussions with your own Prime Minister, Prime Minister Nakasone. We've made great progress there in ridding ourselves of obstructions to back-and-forth trade, and so with our allies. We're all somewhat guilty, even though we profess we want free trade, and we all really know down in our hearts that it is the best way to go, there still are elements of protectionism that all of us practice.

So, what we feel is, it's time to have another round of discussions to see how we can further liberalize and open up our markets to each other.

Q. But in connection with that kind of trade talk, I think most Europeans will probably want to gang up on the Japanese, on that other so-called Japan program. How would you do it?

The President. Well, we'll try to see that no one gangs up on anyone else because, as I said, everyone is guilty. They've all got some elements of protectionism. And we need to get it all out on the table and see how, together, we can end those things that do bring about, well, trade measures that are unfair.

Meeting With Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev

Q. Mr. President, your attitude after the nomination of Mr. Gorbachev at the Kremlin has been welcomed in Europe, your idea of having a meeting with him. I think that Mr. Gorbachev has taken a hard line, and do you still want to meet him, and what kind of meeting do you want?

The President. Well, yes I'd like to meet him. I've always believed that you only get in trouble when you're talking about each other instead of when you're talking to each other. And some people in my own country -- again, some of your colleagues -- have taken the tone that my expressing a desire to meet with him somehow is soft or not looking at reality. No, I think it's looking at reality.

And I think that until we sit down and face each other, look each other in the eyes as you and I are now, and try to eliminate some of the mutual suspicions and express our own objections to some of the practices that have been going on, such as the recent, terribly tragic case of the murder of our Major Nicholson there -- the only way to settle this is not standing here several thousand miles apart saying things about each other. It's to express ourselves to each other and express ourselves as to what is needed if we're going to ever end these hostilities or at least reduce them. And so, yes, I look forward to a meeting.

Nicaragua

Q. In the meantime, Mr. Gorbachev is helping Ortega. What is the position of the United States vis-a-vis Nicaragua at the present? Do you rule out the use of force, the use of American troops -- --

The President. Yes.

Q. -- -- in the area?

The President. I've never considered it. What we have in Nicaragua is a revolution that was fought -- and literally with our approval. The United States -- I wasn't here then during the fighting of that revolution, but the United States stayed back. And anytime there's a revolution there are various factions, all of whom were opposed to the government that they're rebelling against, and they joined together.

They promised all the other countries in the Americas -- Canada, the United States, all the Latin American countries -- they promised that their goal was a democratic government, with free elections, pluralism, free labor unions, human rights observed, freedom of speech and religion, and so forth.

When the revolution was over, this country, under the previous administration, im- mediately went with aid -- more financial aid to the new government of Nicaragua than had been given in 40 years to the previous government of Nicaragua -- but then saw them do exactly what Castro did in Cuba after his people won the revolution. The one faction, the Sandinistas -- that faction eliminated all the other participants in the revolution.

Some were exiled; some had to flee the country; many were jailed. And they drove them out, and then they made it plain, as Castro did in 1959, that they intended a Marxist-Leninist state. And they violated every promise they'd made to the Organization of American States.

Now, the people that are so-called contras, that are fighting against this, are veterans of the revolution. They are not remnants of the previous government trying to get a dictatorship back in power. These are the people, many of them were imprisoned themselves by the previous dictator. And they're demanding a restoration of the democratic goals of the revolution. And we feel obligated to give them support.

But the plan that we've asked the Congress to adopt is one in which those contras, themselves, have volunteered to lay down their weapons and ask them to be allowed to negotiate with their former companions in the revolution, the Sandinista government -- negotiate how to restore the democratic goals. And they've asked that it be mediated by the church.

Well, we have advanced that plan here and have said to the Congress that we will use whatever money is appropriated for food and medicines and so forth, not for military weapons. And we have the support of their allies -- I mean, of their neighbors, Honduras and Costa Rica and Guatemala and El Salvador. The President of El Salvador has said that this is the right idea at the right time. And this is what we've asked of our own Congress, and it's what we want.

We're not even seeking an overthrow of the present government. As a matter of fact, our plan says that while these negotiations go on, the present government stays in power. But it is simply for them to adopt the principles for which they said they were fighting in the first place.

U.S.-Canada Relations

Q. Mr. President, we've been talking about free trade or freer trade. At Quebec City in March, you and Prime Minister Mulroney pledged yourself to trying to eliminate trade barriers between our two countries. But we in Canada feel that there is a rise of protectionism in the United States, and certainly in the U.S. Congress. Now, I know you say there's a bit of protectionism in all of us; and there is.

Now, there's also a report coming out in September. But I know, because I remember your campaign in 1980, when you talked about a North American common market, given the fact that you've been President now for 4 years, what sort of trade relationship would you envisage? What sort of new trade relationship would you envisage between Canada and the United States?

The President. Well, as free as possible. And of course, Canada and the United States, we are each other's largest trading partner. These two countries here and that several-thousand-mile border without so much as one fortification or one armed sentry along that border, we're very unique. We have everything in common, including our heritage and background and language and all. And it is true that here and there, there have come about those specific trade barriers or restraints. And what we've authorized on both sides is for our people at the ministerial level to get together and do the best we can to eliminate those barriers.

And we, too, have made great progress, as I said earlier, with another country, with Japan. We've made great progress and some of the things that we celebrated there on this recent visit, the signing of some very basic agreements. So, I'm quite optimistic about what's going to take place and how we can free up our border and rid it on both sides of these restrictions.

Q. You know, sir, in many ways, we in Canada feel like we're caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the Canadian dollar has gone down vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar. And all sorts of American producers are complaining that the competition in lumber, let's say, is unfair. On the other hand, in trying to seek new markets, we're up against the fact that the Canadian dollar is perhaps overvalued vis-a-vis overseas currencies.

The question really is: How would you respond if Congress went ahead and put restrictions, let's say, on lumber trade and other sectors if trades or imports are being hurt?

The President. Well, I'm opposed to it. And that is what I've had to tell our trading partners -- Prime Minister Mulroney and Prime Minister Nakasone and the others -- is to tell them that pressure is coming from elements in Congress who, for whatever their own reasons are, are trying to pass. And that's why it's beholden on us to make progress in eliminating these barriers before they try to have their way.

Now, I'm opposed to those protectionist proposals in the Congress. And of course, I ultimately do have some power, that of veto, for measures that might be passed. But we have to recognize it, just as I think that the Prime Minister in your country, just as Prime Minister Nakasone in his, I think are being pressed from the bureaucracy of their governments and from the legislatures as to restricting in how far they can go. So, between us, we just have to carry on the fight. And if we make enough progress in getting equal agreements between us, we take away the ammunition of those who are trying to force protectionism on us.

Nuclear and Space Arms Negotiations

Q. Unfortunately the time is running out. We have just 3 minutes to go. A question -- Soviet leader Gorbachev has just offered deep strategic arms cuts. Do you think it's a good proposal, or do you feel that he just wants to put you on the defensive?

The President. Well, if he's trying to put me on the defensive by asking for deep nuclear weapons cuts, I won't be on the defensive, because I won't defend against that.

I was very optimistic before the talks started, when the late Chernenko and Foreign Minister Gromyko both publicly stated that they would like to see the elimination of nuclear offensive weapons.

Well, I told Gromyko over in the Oval Office when he was here we could sign something right then, that that was our ultimate goal and that I was more than pleased to hear them say that it was theirs.

Now, I recognize that that would probably have to be brought about by various stages of reductions in numbers of weapons; and we're very willing; and we have faced them there with proposals that make that evident, that we will join in real reductions of offensive nuclear weapons.

Minister Gromyko said to me at one time: ``How long are we going to sit here on these mountains, ever getting higher, of such weapons?'' And I asked him then, I said: ``Well, we have it between us the ability to lower those mountains, and as long as we're equal at whatever level we stop, then we have a legitimate deterrent that would indicate that they'll never be used.''

European Unity

Q. Mr. President, are you in favor of strong European unification, which of course is the thing of Europe itself, and do you intend to support it in your Strasbourg speech?

The President. Well, I don't know how far I should go in attempting to or appearing to be interfering in a problem that involves purely the European countries. I am gratified, and I think the world should be pleased, to see how the unity of Western Europe has -- as far as it has come now.

You know, 200 years ago, our first President, George Washington, in his farewell address to the Nation, urged them not to get involved in European affairs because of the rivalries and the enmities that existed between them. And here today that's no longer true. Here today we are all allied, and there is this spirit of unity, so I just would hesitate to voice an opinion as to how far they would go with a union of Europe. That, I think -- I don't want the United States to sound as if we're interfering.

Q. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I wish you a pleasant and a good and a successful trip to Europe.

The President. Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to it.

Note: The interview began at 2:33 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the White House.

https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/interview-foreign-journalists

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Association of Space Explorers @ASE_Astronauts

#HappyBirthday to ASE member Toyohiro Akiyama, who flew to space in 1990 aboard Soyuz TM-11 as part of a trip to the Mir space station!

https://twitter.com/ASE_Astronauts/status/1947786317749723369