No doubt John F. Kennedy would appreciate the wry irony of it all.

As life would have it, Caroline Kennedy, 55, the daughter of the late president, is being appointed U.S. ambassador to Japan, a country whose soldiers tried and almost succeeded in killing her father during World War II.

Had the Japanese succeeded on that dark, moonless South Pacific night, when the Japanese destroyer Amagiri cut Kennedy's boat in half, killing two of his crew, there would have been no Caroline Kennedy.

Nor would there have been a President Kennedy, nor his Camelot-like administration that flourished and raised the spirits of the country until he was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The wartime event happened 70 years ago this month, Aug. 1, 1943.

On that night the Amagiri bore down on Lt. Kennedy's unsuspecting PT-109 (patrol torpedo boat) while it idled in the night, rammed it and split it in two. Men were thrown overboard, and the men who were not were crushed to death.

Kennedy, 26, the commander, led his remaining 11 crewmen -- several of whom were badly burned and injured from the collision, explosion and fire from flaming gasoline -- on a 3.5-mile swim in the dark to the nearest small island in the Solomon Islands chain, where they hoped they could hide from the Japanese until rescue.

Kennedy, a proficient swimmer, used a strap from the life jacket of a seriously burned crewman to tow him to the safety of the island. He saved the man's life.

They were rescued a week later after Kennedy sent a message scratched on the husk of a green coconut to an allied coast watcher carried by a Nauro Island native. The message read: "Nauro isl...commander...native knows pos'it...he can pilot...11 alive...need small boat. Kennedy."

Kennedy was later decorated for his leadership, and the event helped launch his political career.

The wartime action became the subject of magazine articles, books, television specials and a movie. It certainly helped Kennedy win the White House in 1960. Kennedy for years kept the coconut, encased in glass, on his desk. He also lived with constant back pain as a result of the ordeal.

Now, all these years later, Caroline Kennedy goes to Japan as our new ambassador. There is no doubt she will be well received, even though there may be some old-timers in Japan and the United States who will recall the wartime incident.

But most Japanese will be honored by having the daughter of the late President Kennedy, who was about as popular at the time of his death, both at home and abroad, as any American president has ever been.

And times have changed. Japan, once our enemy, is now our friend. Hiroshima, which we obliterated with an A-bomb, is now a vibrant and gleaming city.

Also, it is refreshing that the ambassadorship to Japan, a plum assignment, will go to a person like Caroline Kennedy, who did not buy the job, as other ambassadors have done.

The list of rich, fat-cat Obama campaign contributors and bundlers who have been appointed to plum ambassadorships to France, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and elsewhere is long and troubling.

While it is true that Obama is merely following the practice of past presidents by rewarding campaign contributors with lush foreign assignments, it is also true that Obama was the man who promised to change the political culture in Washington. How is that working out?

Interestingly enough, Obama's nomination of Caroline Kennedy for the post, which must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate -- considered routine in this case -- came only after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton resigned and was replaced by Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, a Kennedy family friend.

Caroline Kennedy, the sole surviving child of President Kennedy and his late wife, Jackie, played a crucial role in Obama's quest for the presidency in 2008 when she endorsed him over Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator.

The endorsement came at an important time for Obama, who was the underdog challenging Clinton, then considered the favorite, in a series of heated Democratic presidential primaries. 

Caroline Kennedy, a New York book editor and lawyer, had long been rumored for a top embassy position, but any appointment was put on hold after Obama named Clinton secretary of state. Clinton does not forget. But with Hillary gone, Obama could finally -- and bravely -- make the appointment.

What would Jack Kennedy say? Probably something like "I'm glad the kid got the job."
