Politics & Power Quote by Sessue Hayakawa

Hayakawa is doing something sly: praising America while quietly staging a culture clash that flatters his audience and needles it at the same time. The line lands because it’s built like a little skit. Japan becomes choreography - bow and bow and bow - a wordless ritual so repetitive it turns comic, almost absurd. America, by contrast, arrives as contact: slap, back, “Hello, old man.” He’s not just describing manners; he’s translating entire social philosophies into body language.

As an actor, Hayakawa understands performance better than most. Bowing “without exchanging a word” suggests a culture where respect is encoded, where the relationship is affirmed through form, not confession. The American greeting, loud and physical, frames intimacy as immediacy - you prove closeness by breaking space, by joking, by acting as if time never passed. That “old man” isn’t literal; it’s a casual claim of ownership over the bond.

The subtext is assimilation politics. Speaking to (and likely for) American listeners in an era when Japanese people in the U.S. were exoticized, restricted, and often distrusted, Hayakawa offers a strategically warm “I like America anyway” as a social passport. But the “anyway” carries a faint burr: despite prejudice, despite difference, he’s choosing appreciation. The observation is less touristy than tactical. He’s presenting Japanese formality as dignified yet distant, American informality as friendly yet a little blunt - and letting the audience enjoy being cast as the approachable hero, while hinting that every culture’s “natural” behavior is, in the end, scripted.