The subject of 9/11 came up while I had dinner with a group of friends last autumn.
A Japanese woman said she had seen George W. Bush on the TV news at the site of Ground Zero with a group of rescue workers. She remarked about how peculiarly American it was for the crowd to break suddenly into the chant of "USA! USA! USA!"
"But hang on," I interjected. "Don't Japanese have their own jingoistic chants, something along the lines of "Nippon Gambare!" or "Banzai!" as frequently heard at the Olympics and other sporting events?"
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