The former Prime Minister of Thailand, Kukrit Pramoj, who was Chief Editor of the newspaper ‘Siam Rath’ at the time and who took office as Prime Minister in 1973, stated:
 
“It was thanks to Japan that all nations of Asia gained independence. For Mother Japan, it was a difficult birth which resulted in much suffering, yet her children are growing up quickly to be healthy and strong.  

Who was it that enabled the citizens of the nations of Southeast Asia to gain equal status alongside the United States and Britain today? It is because Japan, who acted like a mother to us all, carried out acts of benevolence towards us and performed feats of self-sacrifice. December 8th is the day when Mother Japan – who taught us this important lesson – laid her life on the line for us, after making a momentous decision and risking her own well-being for our sake.

Furthermore, August 15th is the day when our beloved and revered mother was frail and ailing. Neither of these two days should ever be forgotten”.

In 1963, the televising of “Tetsuwan Atom” began, and was broadcast overseas as “AstroBoy” causing Osamu Tezuka’s audience to grow worldwide. Some notable Japanese animation accomplishments include: “Doraemon” (1969), “UFO Robo Grandizer” (1978) (it had the highest audience rating of 100% in France and Italy and the theme songs were smash successes selling over 1 million copies), “Dragonball” (1986) ( with a rating of 70% which made Akira Toriyama the most popular Japanese in France), Akira (アキラ) (1988), “Pokemon”(ポケモン) (1997) for which the 1999 movie version took first place in United States box offices, and Naruto (ナルト) (2002) which had the highest ratings among Japanese households with boys aged 6-14 (as of 2006). All of these projects are milestones of success in Japanese animation that have taken place throughout the world. Recently, the animated movie “Spirited Away” claimed The Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear in 2002 as well as the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003.