European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 8, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Hirohito formally clothed in the traditional court costume which he wore As Crown Prince for his Coronation in 1925. Continued from Page 13 Imperial figure on the military Parade ground. But when afoot and in civilian clothes that sometimes seemed a trifle Loose on his spare 5-foot-3-Inch Frame he resembled a typical Middle class Tokyo company official. At his birth on april 29,1901, As the first son of Crown Prince Yoshihito and Princess Sadako now known As emperor Taisho and Empress Teimei Hirohito was destined to carry on the tradition of an Imperial line whose descent is traced in legend to Amaterasu Mikami the Sun goddess in the pantheon of shinto. Shinto was the japanese state religion until officials of the Allied occupation decreed the separation of Church and state it continues with buddhism to be one of the two principal religions of the japanese. It is from the ancient belief in heavenly origin that the japanese never speak of the emperor by his Given name during his lifetime always referring to him by the title Tenno Heika. These words mean celestial emperor whom one regards from below the staircase deriving from the former requirement that the Sovereign always be addressed by his retainers from a lower height. The Era in which Hirohito was born is remembered for the Meiji restoration which theoretically returned authority to the emperor from the military dictators called shoguns and for Japan s amazing Progress from feudalism and isolation to the front rank of world Powers. Whether much real authority was Given Back to the throne remains debatable. However it was in the name of Hirohito s Grandfather emperor Meiji formerly Mutsuhiko that Japan embarked upon a rapid course of modernization. At the turn of the Century in Swift succession japanese forces Defeated the chinese and the russians. Japanese Power was thus established in Korea Manchuria and Taiwan by the time Hirohito s father came to the throne in 1912. Young Prince Hirohito meanwhile was being educated by tutors in a separate household As was the Imperial custom. The most notable development in a Serene childhood was the interest he developed in Marine biology which was to stay with him the rest of his life. A few weeks before his 17th birthday Hirohito became engaged to Princess Nagako daughter of Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni. Before his marriage the Crown Prince and a distinguished retinue had made a visit in 1921, to London and other european capitals an episode that Hirohito later described As the happiest period in his life. Shortly after his return to Tokyo the Young Prince was plunged into official duties because of his father s failing health. On nov. 10, 1921, Hirohito was appointed Prince Regent to carry on the Imperial functions. Emperor Taisho died on dec. 25,1926, and Hirohito came to the throne. Hirohito and Nagako had seven children in All five daughters and two sons including Crown Prince Akihito born in 1933. One daughter died at age 2. Koichi Kido relates in a diary written when he was Hirohito s confidant As lord keeper of the privy Seal that the Young emperor showed an Early distaste for the growing Militarist influence in his government. In 1932, lord Kido wrote Hirohito asked that the new prime minister about to be selected be one who has no fascist leanings and about whom there has been no unsavoury Rumor who is moderate in thought and who is not the next year according to the Kido diaries Hirohito expressed misgivings about his government s decision to withdraw from the league of nations after that organization had condemned Japan s expansion in China. / in 1937, Hirohito was credited with bringing the fighting Between chinese and japanese forces to a halt albeit a temporary one. Kido also has indicated that the later excesses of the japanese army notably the infamous rape of banking in december 1937, were kept from Hirohito s knowledge. Both Kido and Joseph c. Grew . Ambassador to Japan at the outbreak of world War ii indicated in diaries that Hirohito was opposed to the tripartite Alliance of Japan Germany and Italy. The myth of the divine Monarch whose word was sacrosanct was revealed As a shabby pretence on occasions like these and Hirohito was Well aware of it the British journalist Leonard Mosley wrote in his biography Hirohito emperor of Japan published in 1966. Another authority Robert . Butow wrote in his definitive history Tojo and the coming of War published in 1961 for the emperor successfully to have intervened in such a Way As to direct affairs along lines More in Accord with his personal conscience would have required him to be a Man of less retiring personality with a very practical grasp of political affairs. Moreover he would have needed the support of an enforcement machinery capable of coping with powerful dissidents and the encouragement of advisers who believed a More Active personal participation by his majesty to be necessary and other historians a distinct minority have argued that Hirohito bore far More responsibility for japanese militarism than is generally acknowledged. David Bergamini in his Book Japan s Imperial conspiracy asserts that Hirohito helped plan expansionist policies from the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 to the raid on Pearl Harbor 10 years later. By 1941, the militarists headed by the prime minister Gen. Hideki Tojo were convinced that a coalition called by japanese the abcs Powers the americans British chinese and dutch stood in the Way of Japan s ambitions to find an outlet for expansion in control of chinese and Southeast asian raw materials and markets. When the United states acted to counter japanese expansionism with a Trade embargo and other measures the decision was made in Tokyo to neutralize the american threat by an attack on the . Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Mosley wrote that the emperor in giving his consent to the beginning of hostilities insisted that the United states be notified of the japanese intention before the attack took place. If Tojo intended to follow Hirohito s wishes in giving Washington prior notice of the Pearl Harbor attack a delay in decoding a final message from Tokyo to the japanese embassy in Washington prevented him from doing so. The japanese Carrier based air Force struck at 7 55 . Dec. 7,1941, hawaiian time with Complete Surprise. Pearl Harbor was a smoking shambles when an Imperial Prescript declaring War was issued nearly nine hours after the first bombs had fallen. By the Middle of 1945, As Japan s situation became hopeless in the face of american advances in the As first Crown Prince Ever to go abroad Hirohito with Gen. Douglas Macarthur in Tokyo 25 Days after Hirohito reviews British Honor guard 1921. Japan surrendered and world War ii ended. Pacific islands and air attacks that had turned most of Tokyo into a charred wasteland the emperor at last decided to take the initiative in a bid to end the futile resistance. He first attempted a personal approach to the soviet Union for mediation with the United states but Moscow ignored the overtures. On july 26,1945, the United states Britain and China signed the Potsdam declaration calling for the unconditional surrender of the japanese armed forces a wording that deliberately left undefined the status of the emperor and the civil government of the Defeated country. With a final show of bravado the japanese Cabinet rejected the came the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on aug. 6. Two Days later the soviet Union repudiated a longstanding neutrality pact with Japan and attacked the japanese forces in Manchuria. The next Day an atomic bomb exploded Over Nagasaki. Clearly the end had come. An Imperial conference was called in the emperor s elaborate air raid shelter at Midnight on aug. 10 to consider Japan s next step. There were still die hards in the Cabinet representing the military who insisted on continuing the hopeless struggle. Finally . Kantaro Suzuki the prime minister Rose and proposed that Hirohito make the decision whether to surrender or go on fighting. This was an extraordinary deviation from time honoured practice Toshikazu Kase wrote later. Hirohito was equal to it. According to authoritative accounts of that historic night the emperor Rose from his throne like seat at the head of the conference table and made an Impromptu statement in which he said i have Given serious thought to the situation prevailing at Home and abroad and i have concluded that continuing the War can Only mean destruction for the nation and a prolongation of bloodshed and cruelty in the world. I cannot Bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer. The time has come when we must Bear the unbearable. I Swallow my tears and give my Sanction to the proposal to accept the Allied late on aug. 14, the emperor recorded a Brief speech to be broadcast to the nation the following Day. In the ambiguous phraseology of japanese officialdom Hirohito proclaimed that the War situation has developed not necessarily to our he called upon the people to endure the unendurable and to prepare for whatever might come. The formal surrender was signed aboard the american battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on sept. 2. There were clamors for the emperor s indictment As a War criminal but Macarthur was opposed to making Hirohito a Martyr. When the emperor called on the supreme commander in the american embassy on sept. 26, Macarthur received him wearing the casual open collared uniform of the the emperor who was dwarfed beside the tall imposing general wore formal striped trousers and cutaway coat. According to the Macarthur memoirs this is what the said when they were alone with their interpreters a come to you general Macarthur to offer myself in Imperial family on vacation in 1947, in a photo typical of Campaign to humanize the emperor. The judgment of the Powers you represent As the one to Bear sole responsibility for every political and military decision made and taken by my people in the conduct of the he was an emperor by inherent birth but in that instant i knew i faced the first gentleman of Japan in his own right Macarthur wrote. A new anti Militarist Constitution approved by the Allied occupation come and adopted by parliament on nov. 3,1946, defined the new role of the emperor As the Symbol of the state and the Unity of the people deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides with encouragement of the occupation authorities a Campaign began to humanize the emperor by bringing him with As Little Royal protocol As was possible into Contact with More of his people. The Effort was not without awkward moments. It is related that on one occasion while visiting a president Nixon greets Hirohito in Anchorage during Monarch s Stopover in route to Europe in 1971, a he became first reigning emperor of Japan to go abroad. A benign grand fatherly figure in old age Hirohito strolls with Empress Nagako through the Garden of the Imperial Villa North of Tokyo in 1982. Factory Hirohito was startled when a worker stepped Forward and shoved out his hand in the new manner of greeting Learned from hand shaking american soldiers. The emperor hesitated a moment. Let us do it the japanese Way he said quietly. He took a step backward and bowed. The abashed worker returned the traditional gesture. In the following years the grading emperor and his Motherly looking Consort became a familiar sight around the country opening exhibitions attending performances of various kinds even occasionally visiting a department store. Although the state functions remaining to him were purely formal they kept the emperor Busy from morning until late afternoon. He was required to sign Cabinet orders and new legislation and he took his responsibilities seriously receiving regular briefings from the ministries on dominant issues. At various times he went to the Palace shrines to perform shinto rites required of him As nominal head of the former state religion. His most solemn responsibility came each year on aug. 15, when he led the nation in a remembrance of the wartime surrender. His words changed Little Over the years. Even now he would say my heart aches when i think of the Many people who fell in the War and of their bereaved away from his official duties Hirohito spent countless Happy hours with microscopes and other scientific paraphernalia in his Marine biology Laboratory. Half a dozen authoritative books on the subject appeared under his name. He was credited with discovering previously unknown species of tiny sea creatures in his explorations of Sagami Bay. Like All cultivated japanese the emperor and Empress were accomplished in chinese calligraphy and the composition of Brief verses in the formal styles called Haiku and Waka. Once a year they presided at a Reading of prize winning poems submitted to a contest under Palace sponsorship. In the Early years after the War the throne was sometimes an object of criticism As a parasitic institution. But As bitter memories of the War grew dimmer the vilification of the Imperial family also passed. If anything affection deepened in 1959 when Crown Prince Akihito broke with Imperial tradition and took As his Bride Michiko Shoda a commoner the daughter of a wealthy businessman. In 1960, the birth of Prince Hiro the first son of the Crown Prince and Princess assured still another heir to the throne. In 1971 Hirohito became the first reigning emperor of Japan to travel abroad when he and Empress Nagako visited Britain Belgium West Germany the Netherlands Denmark France and Switzerland. On that trip they set foot on american soil for the first time when they stopped briefly in Anchorage Alaska where they were greeted by president Nixon. The first full scale trip to the United states came four. Years later and it offered an extraordinary Opportunity for Imperial reflections on world War ii. Hirohito was received by president Ford with All the pomp that the White House could Muster. While he was in the capital he placed a Wreath at the Tomb of the unknown Soldier and an aide visited Norfolk va., to Lay a Wreath at the grave of Macarthur. His contacts with his own subjects were largely confined to two Public appearances a year on Jan. 2, to extend new year s greetings and on april 29, his birthday. He would appear with the Empress and other family members wave to the crowds that had been allowed to enter the Palace grounds briefly and say a few words. After the United states journey Hirohito was called upon twice More to reflect on the War with important allies still nursing deep wounds from past japanese aggression. Both times his words were drafted by government ministries. Both times careful attention was paid that the words not go too far to avoid ruffling right Wing elements at Home who Felt that Japan had done nothing that warranted an apology. In 1978, six years after Normal relations were restored with China its Leader Deng Xiaoping went to Tokyo. When the two men met the emperor said that there were unhappy events in the Long history of sino japanese that was As close As he came to mentioning Japan s invasion of China in 1930s. In 1984 Hirohito received the South korean president Chun Doo Hwan and alluded to the japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945, a colonial Rule judged by historians to have been uncommonly harsh. It is indeed regrettable the emperor said in his most circumspect manner that there was an unfortunate past Between us for a period in the Century and i believe that it should not be repeated Page 14 the stars and stripes sunday january 8,1989 the stars and stripes Page 15
