This year there were two Olympics. One was for the world generally. The other was for Japan, with audiences glued to events where hysterical announcers could declare a Japanese victory.

The Olympics coincided with the glad news that yet another Japanese child sent to the United States for an organ transplant had returned safely. As ever, no one seemed to notice that yet another U.S. child had probably been denied a transplant so that Japan could continue to indulge in its gut-conservative reluctance to promote such operations.

Fortunately, there were no serious plane crashes. Otherwise we would have been treated to the usual media fuss over Japanese casualties while ignoring what happened to everyone else.