The Nation - News from Dec. 29, 1987

Mike Mansfield, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, is in Hawaii to undergo what the State Department described only as routine surgery. Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said the 84-year-old Mansfield, who has been envoy to Japan since 1977, left Tokyo on Saturday and is undergoing treatment at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. She said he was expected to return to Tokyo in about two weeks. The operation will prevent Mansfield, a former Senate majority leader, from being in Washington for the visit in two weeks of Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.