I asked 30 Japanese 12-year-olds one question. "What do you think of when you hear 'America'?" (My nephew's teacher let me visit his class. I was not prepared.) "Hamburgers the size of my head." "Everything is big. Even the milk." "Cowboys." Then a boy asked me, "Do cowboys still exist?" I said yes. The whole class cheered. "They went to the moon." I told them only Americans have ever walked on it. The room went completely silent. Respect. "The best baseball in the world. Even Ohtani had to go there." "Superheroes. They all live in New York." Then a quiet girl in the back raised her hand. "My grandma says when the tsunami came, American soldiers came to help her town. She still has a photo with them on her fridge." Nobody said anything for a while. Then the teacher asked, "Who wants to go to America someday?" Every hand went up. Including the teacher's.