Political Quotes

“Dr. James ``Jim'' E. Auer, who passed away in Nashville, TN, on May 16, 2024, was a pillar of the U.S.-Japan Alliance. I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Auer for a number of years, as he would attend events hosted by the Japan-America Society of Tennessee. While I would speak with Jim from time to time, he never talked about--nor even hinted at--his own truly incredible accomplishments with respect to the U.S.-Japan Alliance. That is until, one day, it leaked out that President Trump was nominating me to be U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and Jim told my longtime assistant Betsy Van Dam that he needed to meet with me in person soon. And so Jim and I met, and he began to unpack for me his accumulated knowledge amassed over the decades of his experience with Japan. Let me summarize some of that experience: Jim began his career working with the U.S. Navy in 1963 assigned to a minesweeper based in Sasebo, Japan. He would go on to be the first U.S. Navy officer to study at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Staff College in Tokyo. In 1973, he would be a key figure in homeporting the U.S.S. Midway, the first U.S. aircraft carrier to be permanently based in a foreign country, in Yokosuka, Japan--a distinction that Japan continues to hold to this day. From 1979 to 1988, he served as the Special Assistant for Japan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, acting as a bridge between the Japanese Defense Agency--now Japan's Ministry of Defense--and the U.S.…”