Cheney told 'Yankee Go Home' in Japan

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:15 am CST

TOKYO -- Half-way to Japan, Vice President Dick Cheney stepped out of Air Force Two for a breath of fresh, cold air in Alaska, with snow piled high on the windswept grounds of Elmendorf Air Force Base. This was a mere refueling stop on a 17-hour journey, which, thanks to the international dateline, started early Monday morning outside Washington and ended mid-afternoon Tuesday in Tokyo.

Two greetings awaited Cheney here in Tokyo:

The first was a red-carpet welcome that he received at the airport, with a long red rug rolled out on the wet tarmac for his landing on a drizzly, overcast day, with green-uniformed military men flanking the carpet leading from the vice president's plane to his motorcade, which whisked him into town.

Then there were the blaring loudspeakers of soundtrucks parked just outside a barricade near the American embassy, where the vice president is staying, with the trucks blaring music and chants, mostly in Japanese, but one chant in unmistakable English: "Yankee Go Home, Yankee Go Home.''

Cheney lands in Tokyo to a red-carpet welcome and a downtown chant of "Yankee Go Home.'' Photo by Mark Silva

The soundtrucks dispersed after several minutes, and the vice president settled in for an afternoon of briefings with the U.S. ambassador, Thomas Schieffer, brother to CBS newsman Bob Schieffer.

The traveling press have left the vice president at the embassy, where he will have dinner as well, and settled in at a nearby hotel. It's getting to be late afternoon here, 14 hours ahead of Washington.

Rolling out the red carpet for Cheney. Silva

Both the vice president and Mrs. Cheney were to dine with the ambassador, but Mrs. Cheney decided last minute against traveling because of the death of a family friend.

The honor guard at the airport. Silva.

We didn't see a lot of the vice president en route either. He made one brief appearance in the cabin of Air Force Two, smiling and speaking with senior staff near the front of the plane, and he stepped out on to the stairs of the plane in Alaska during refueling for a breath of fresh air. But mainly, all we saw was the ornate seal of the vice president of the United States on the wall of the forward cabin.

The snow in Alaska. Silva.

Tomorrow promises a long day that will take Cheney from the Imperial Palace, where he has an audience with the emperor, to the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk at Yokosuka Naval Base, where he will address and rally U.S. troops. He will meet with American and Japanese military leaders and foreign minister and have dinner with the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, tomorrow evening.

Cheney stepped out of the plane for a breather in Alaska, en route to Tokyo. Silva.