My second scoop: learning from Prime Minister Nehru, in New Delhi, that he wanted to start a third world bloc of nations. Until then, newly freed India had been expected to choose to affiliate either with the Free World nations led by the US, or the Communist bloc which looked to Moscow.

His Imperial Highness, Emperor Akihito of Japan, as a 14-year-old Crown Prince, assisting Dr. Booth in a performance at the Gakushu-Inn School for sons of the nobility at Koganei, near Tokyo, July 1948. Inset: H.I.H. Emperor Akihito having ascended the throne Jan. 7, 1989.

India was large enough and strong enough, he told me, to head a third group of neutral countries. This was the first time such a political concept had been voiced. It came to pass.

Two other events in Asia were memorable. In Japan, I had an opportunity to entertain with some magic at the Peers School just outside Tokyo. Sons of the nobility were its sole students. Today's Emperor Akihito attended then as the Crown Prince, a 14 or 15-year-old lad. A US Army Signal Corps photographer, sent out by MacArthur, took an unposed photo of Akihito, standing beside me, holding a hand on my birdcage containing a canary. Seconds later bird and cage vanished instantly from my hands. That picture was flashed all over the world. World War II had certainly broken many royal traditions, allowing the Imperial Family, now, to be seen in such informal situations.

The second unforgettable experience was finally receiving permission, after years trying, to trek into then forbidden Tibet. With five Sherpa porters, I crossed the border from Sikkim into Tibet, allegedly the ninth American in history allowed to do so. We followed the caravan trade route to Phari Dzong and the holy mountain of Tibet, Chomo Lhari. My kodachrome slides of the difficult journey not only constituted the first travelogue in color on TV (NBC) but became the initial basis of a future part-time career as a cinematographer while still a busy clergyman.

When the sabbatical in Asia was completed, I embarked upon my second parish ministry in Belmont, Massachusetts. At the same time I wrote my next book, Fabulous Destinations, describing the events of that wonderfully tumultuous year mainly in the Far East. Published by the Macmillan Company, it became a Travel Book of the Month Club #1 selection.

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