‘AND WHAT if you track down these men and kill them, what if you killed all of us? From every corner of Europe, hundreds, thousands would rise up to take our places. Even Nazis can’t kill that fast.” – Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), Casablanca , 1942
STIRRING STUFF. And now, the pub quiz question: What’s the connection between Casablanca ’s fleeing resistance hero, Victor Laszlo, and Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama?
Answer: Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, aristocratic son of an Austrian diplomat and Japanese mother, champion of the idea of a united states of Europe in the interwar period and seen by many as one of the inspirers of the European Economic Community. And the inspiration, it is said, for the character of Laszlo.
For this curious link, I am indebted to Prof Yoshibumi Wakamiya, a senior columnist at Asahi Shimbun and a professor of political journalism. On Monday at UCD he delivered a fascinating account of political change in Japan in which Coudenhove- Kalergi’s ideas are playing a prominent part.
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