TOKYO, Jan. 16, 2023—On Jan. 15, 2023 night, I was at a small reunion of my school day friends at an Italian restaurant not far from the Imperial Palace. A small topic during our dinner reminded me of Michael ‘Buck’ Tharp, a head-to-toe journalist who died on Jan. 13, 2023 of cancer caused by Agent Orange, that highly carcinogenic chemical that the U.S. military used during the Vietnam War.
One of my friends is a successful yet brash business executive, amassing what seems to be billions of dollars over years, owning at leasts three large (by tight Tokyo standards, of course) houses in a luxurious neighborhood. He said that he, like others at the dinner table, approach life’s golden age, was readying to step down as a majority shareholder and CEO of his company. What then are you going to do?, I asked.
‘I have ordered a catamaran!,’ he declared proudly. ‘It’s being built in France. Japanese dockyards are not up to nicely fitting a big catamaran technologically, so I had to order it to a French builder. It will be delivered to me by year-end or early next year. It’s too big to be moored at a Tokyo pleasure yacht harbor so I decided to keep it in Okayama, on the Seto Inland Sea. You guys are welcome to stay on board when it arrives. The ship’s living and dining room is as big as this restaurant.’ I intervened, saying that he can use some of his money for the world’s hungry and needy and send to Ukraine. My friend turned quiet.
A Shinkansen bullet train ride to Okayama and his boatyard takes almost a full day from my home. My friend wants to go there at least once a month, for several days, plus to his villa in the prestigious Karuizawa resort in Nagano every weekend as he has been doing over the past 20 years or so, when he’s not flying to other countries.
So, as we finished our meal (which was not great and wine was way over-priced), this rich friend told us to let us go Dutch and split the bill. Which we did, and left the restaurant. All of us heading toward a subway station, except him and his wife, who kept a limo waiting for them.
This reunion experience reminded me of Mike Tharp, who had been an active journalist until his cancer was found a few years ago. Almost 20 years ago, Mike revisited Japan from California (I believe) when he was working as the editor-in-chief of the Merced Sun Star, a local newspaper. We met at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan and I invited him to a sushi dinner. Several years later, at a former Japan hands journalist reunion at the Overseas Press Club bar in midtown Manhattan, March 19, 2010, Mike told me, ‘The sushi dinner you treated me was so delicious that I still remember it!’ He told me the same when he reciprocated my dinner treat with lunch when he was living in Long Beach, CA about the same period.
As such, Tharp-san never forgot favors given him. After his death, I tried to remember his writings, what he said and did, interactions with people. Mike Tharp wrote a front-page cover (I thought it was a full-spread entire page) on the Aug. 16, 1977 Elvis Presley death. It was full of tears, warmth and empathy for Elvis. Mike thanked Elvis for the music as if he cannot live without it. Mike was a man who thought and concerned about others before him. That’s why and how he made himself a great, affable journalist. Warm, embracing, funny and honest. He was 77 years old.
R.I.P., Tharp-san,
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Insight Into the Future