JAPAN: Peace, It's Wonderful

(2 of 2)

At Tokyo's Christian Meiji Gakuin College, a young student who couldn't remember the name Garry Davis, formally asked the government for permission to become a world citizen and "work for eternal peace on an international plane like that fellow in France."

After weeks of wrangling, peace came with the autumn to 1,200-year-old Horyuzi Temple when ancient Abbot Join Saeki at last decided to let scientists dig for a casket supposedly containing the ashes of Buddha. There was only one condition: the casket could be opened only by a picked seven-man committee acceptable to the abbot. "Tampering with an old structure," said Saeki, "is tantamount to vivisection."

Even once restless Yoshio Kodaira, who last year was convicted of raping 40 women and murdering eight, seemed to have caught the general spirit. "I am fortunate," he said as he marched to the gallows last week, "to be able to die on such a calm and peaceful day."