Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga delivers his speech at the memorial ceremony in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Aug. 6. (Jun Ueda)

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga appeared somewhat nervous at the Aug. 9 peace memorial ceremony in Nagasaki to mark the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.

He kept looking down at the prepared text of his speech, perhaps because he had accidentally skipped a part of his address in Hiroshima on Aug. 6.

The part in question went, "It is important to steadily build up efforts over time towards the realization of a world free of nuclear weapons."

The omission removed context from the speech, which interrupted the flow of the on-screen text on TV while Suga's address was being aired live.

According to a source close to the prime minister, his "slip" was due to an error made in gluing together his accordion-folded manuscript. A bit of glue inadvertently caused two pages to stick together, the source reportedly explained, so that Suga could not turn the pages in their proper sequence.

What puzzles me is that the prime minister appeared totally oblivious to this "accident" while delivering his address.

He would surely have noticed it immediately, had he been mindful of the logic of his own speech.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965), renowned for his oratory, made a major blunder in his younger days.

Denouncing Parliament for failing to represent the voices of the working class, Churchill stridently said, "And it rests with those who ..."

But he stopped abruptly there and remained wordless for a full three minutes. And when he returned to his seat, he buried his head in his hands.

The following day, the British press had a field day revisiting his fiasco in Parliament.

According to "The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History," a critical biography published by Prime Minister Boris Johnson before he came into power, this setback changed Churchill's style of speechmaking.

He stopped memorizing his words and switched proudly to manuscript speech delivery.

Even though he only read out his prepared texts, he was considered one of the greatest orators in history because his words obviously came from his heart and soul.

Since born orators are few and far between, I would respectfully ask Prime Minister Suga to go over the texts of his own speeches, edit and polish them as many times as necessary, and practice reading them aloud, if possible.

Words that were struck from a speech are lost forever.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 10

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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