Caroline Kennedy Remembers When Shinzo Abe Surprised Her Son Jack Schlossberg for His 23rd Birthday
From 2013 to 2017, Caroline Kennedy served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan and worked closely alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated last week during a campaign event in Nara Japan. In a recent interview, Kennedy opened up about Abe's legacy and the shock of his assassination.
"Prime Minister Abe was an incredible leader," Kennedy told NBC News. He was "once in a generation." She added,"both our countries have lost a great leader and a great friend."
"When I saw him at his most powerful was when he really led the effort to strengthen the process of reconciliation between our two countries, who fought so bitterly during World War II," she said. "As the child of a Pacific war veteran, to me, that was incredibly meaningful."
Kennedy's father, John F. Kennedy, served in the Navy during World War II, where he commanded a series of PT boats. He survived the sinking of PT-109, and rescued members of his crew, which earned him a Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart. "Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, 'I served in the United States Navy,'" he wrote in August 1963.
"Prime Minister Abe had great admiration for President Kennedy, and his call to public service," Caroline Kennedy continued. "Prime Minister Abe came from a political family, as well."
She went on to speak further about Abe's dedication to reconciliation and healing from the horrors of World War II.
Prime Minister Abe, she said, "was committed to President Obama's visit to Hiroshima, which was a historic moment in U.S.-Japan relations, and then he himself became the first sitting Prime Minister to pay his respects and condolences at Pearl Harbor. I think I saw then the power of leadership to build a more peaceful world, and it's up to each of us to do whatever we can to continue and strengthen that process—but I saw two leaders engage in that, and take great risk to do it. But they did it, because they're committed to freedom and human rights and democracy."
After speaking about the diplomacy, Kennedy went on to speak about a more personal anecdote: Her son Jack Schlossberg's unexpected friendship with the late Prime Minister.
Schlossberg recently took to social media to share a tribute to the assassinated Prime Minister. "Transformational leader," Schlossberg tweeted of Abe, "committed to democracy, rule of law, and US-Japan alliance." He continued, "Legacy endures in the strength of the Japanese people and the ties that bind our two nations." Schlossberg also shared Abe attended his 23rd birthday party, which his mom expanded on.
"Prime Minister Abe was a very formal leader, but in our case, he also had a deep affinity for the United States and a great admiration for our democracy. He and his wife showed me great kindness on multiple occasions that went beyond the official," she recounted.
"One of the most thoughtful things he did was to show up at my son's birthday party, as a surprise," she shared. "My son had a great admiration for Prime Minister Abe as a leader. He came to the restaurant—I hadn't told my son and all of a sudden he saw the Prime Minister walking down through the restaurant and the look on Jack's face was priceless. The Prime Minister went well out of his way to do that, and it was an incredibly meaningful gesture to me and to our family—a way of him showing how much he valued our personal friendship as well as the relationship between our two countries."
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