The Perpetual Apology of Japan

A few days ago, in some of my usual perusing of historic dates, I noticed that it was on April 22, 2005 that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized for the actions of his country during World War II. There should be nothing remarkable about that, except that, wait for any crisis or international dispute to come along, particularly any involving the (four) republican governments of Korea and China and one will invariably hear calls to this day for Japan to “apologize” for what happened during the Pacific War. Those unfamiliar with this little ritual might wonder how this could be as my opening sentence made mention of the Japanese prime minister apologizing in 2005, but wait, it gets better. Japanese prime ministers, various other government ministers and officials have apologized for the war literally dozens of times (if not more) from 1945 to today. The Showa Emperor even offered to apologize immediately after the war to the Allied supreme commander Douglas MacArthur but was refused. It doesn’t take a great deal of scholarly research to find all of this out. A simple internet search will show a number of (long) lists of all the apologies for the war made by the prime ministers of Japan. Yet, for some people, this is not enough and even in Japan it is becoming increasingly clear that it never will be enough.

The reasons “why” all the past apologies are deemed insufficient range from the verbally pedantic to the downright hysterical. Some say the wording has been wrong (yes, every time) even though, one would think, after so many apologies over so many years, each worded differently, the law of averages would compel one to have struck the right note at least once by now. Another is that the prime ministers have apologized personally but not “officially” as in, on behalf of Japan at large. This makes little sense because the prime ministers have stated that their apology was “official” at the time but also because the prime minister is the elected leader of the Japanese government. He occupies his position only because the country at large voted his party and/or the allies of it into power. Some have argued that any apology by the prime minister is insufficient but that it is HM the Emperor who should apologize, which is really ridiculous coming from countries that are all republics and who claim that a hereditary monarch can never be a legitimate representative of “the people” in the first place. Similarly, I have no doubt that if HM the Emperor did issue another formal apology (which has been offered, to Korea at least, if it would be accepted) the same crowd would probably say that His Majesty doesn’t represent the people or start arguing about the Emperor not “really” being the head of state and thus any apology from His Majesty is meaningless.

Another often cited reason is that, aside from the various leaders making the apologies, “the Japanese” themselves, “don’t really mean it”. This is where we start encountering hysteria. Yes, they actually claim to know what everyone in a given country is *thinking*! It sounds absurd, but no less so than the “evidence” cited for this. They point to the bombastic talk of the (miniscule) radical fringe or, more frequently, visits by state officials to the Yasukuni Shrine. This one really, really annoys me. One would think, from listening to the complaints from her republican neighbors, that Japan built the Yasukuni Shrine specifically to venerate war criminals. It is simply untrue as anyone should be able to see if they give it more than a mere second of serious thought. In the first place, I would object to any foreign country, government or even individual granting themselves power to decide where others can, in western terms, go to church. The spiritual beliefs and religious practices of Japanese prime ministers or any individual is the business of no one but themselves and that should be the end of it. In the case of Japan, however, it certainly is not and countries (like the bandit government in Peking) who pride themselves on their supposed non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries take a great interest in it.

In fact, just reflect on that for a moment; the same government which gets very, very touchy about anyone bringing up the massacres in Tibet or Tiananmen Square, because these were “internal matters” that are of no concern to foreigners does think that it is their business where the prime minister of Japan ‘goes to church’. Yasukuni Shrine, of course, is not a place that glorifies war criminals, it is a place to honor all of the deceased of Japan from all the wars the country has fought (or at least since the Meiji era). It is a place to remember all those who gave their lives for the Emperor. Yes, among those whose names have been listed there are a handful of men who were declared War Criminals by the Allied powers. That does not mean that every person who goes there is going there to honor those few people. That would be like saying that every time the President of the United States visits Arlington National Cemetery he is honoring U.S. generals buried there who slaughtered American Indians, Filipino rebels or who fought on the wrong side in the Civil War. I doubt anyone would believe that when President Obama goes to Arlington he is going to honor the memory of former Confederate General Joseph Wheeler who is buried there. It is an absurd line of thinking.

This does, however, point to another glaring inconsistency in the argument of the critics of Japan who like to seize on the visits by certain politicians to Yasukuni Shrine. Remember that many of these same critics say that no apology from any prime minister will be good enough, because they are not the head of state but that only an apology from HM the Emperor will do. Well, no reigning Emperor has ever visited Yasukuni Shrine since World War II. Why is it that a prime minister is too insignificant when making an apology but is suddenly extremely significant when he visits Yasukuni Shrine? However, as has been displayed numerous times, it does not take even so lofty a personage as the prime minister to set the critical lips to flapping. Certain prime ministers have practically begged all government officials not to visit the shrine but, Japan being a free country, anyone has a right to and all it takes is one minor functionary to enter Yasukuni Shrine for the apology brigade to fly into a foaming frenzy. It a perfect issue for them because, so long as freedom of worship exists in Japan, the government cannot stop people from visiting the shrine and so they have a natural spring for outrage that will never run dry and which can always be turned to at the necessary time.

There is, of course, a need that is served by these endless demands for perpetual apology from Japan. One is a never-ending demand for more money. Since the end of World War II, Japan has paid many, many billions of dollars (I would not be surprised if it were in the trillions by now) to the former Allies, to the families of Allied POW’s and civilians, to the countries of southeast Asia, Korea and China. There are still, of course, plenty of people who will say (honestly) that they never saw a penny but that is because of their own governments rather than the one in Tokyo. Vast sums in direct reparations and in “financial assistance” has been paid out by Japan over the years, but, of course, it never seems to be enough to comfort those countries demanding more apologies (invariably accompanied by a monetary donation as well). I also cannot help but notice that these countries, or those within them anyway, who claim to be so hurt and offended and outraged by Japanese attitudes are never quite so disgusted as to cut off trade with Japan or have their own economies hurt by refusing to do business with the island nation. Odd that. In the case of the Republic of China and the Republic of Korea the governments agreed to dismiss individual cases of reparations in return for lump sums of cash paid directly to them (China wanted it to fight the communists) which Japan agreed to only to have subsequent governments refuse to honor the agreements of their predecessors and demand more.

The ritual was performed again only recently (I saw it Monday, which set me off) when no less a figure than the Foreign Minister of the PRC criticized the Japanese government because a few officials had gone to the Yasukuni Shrine and because Prime Minister Abe donated some money to the shrine. She said that things would never be normal until Japan “faced up” to its history of aggression. This is so disgustingly infuriating, especially when being espoused in self-righteous tones by a member of the same political party whose dictatorship has cost the lives of tens of millions of people (more than all Japanese “war criminals” combined in fact, even if going by the astronomical numbers the Chinese themselves cite). The “great” thing about saying Japan has to “face up” to its past actions is that no one can measure such a vague demand. No one can ever say when that has been accomplished. In other words, no matter what Japan does, the PRC can still say it isn’t enough. And, of course, it never will be enough because it is far too useful to the bandit government in Peking to use as a tool of distraction, as a way of rallying national unity behind the dictatorship and to isolate Japan on the world stage by portraying them as the perpetual villains and China as the perpetual victim. Yes, according to the Red Chinese, the country that actually has it written into their constitution that they can never go to war, is the bully and the country with an army of millions, the largest air force on earth and a huge nuclear arsenal is the innocent, put upon victim. Rich. And so the lies go on. In the same broadcast I watched on CCTV they actually said that Yasukuni Shrine was a place that honored war criminals -and I’m sure plenty of morons out there in TV zombie-land believed them.

Japan, of course, should put a stop to all apologies immediately. Personally, I think they should scrap their constitution and write a totally new one (themselves), re-arm and even develop their own nuclear arsenal since China and North Korea do but, don’t be alarmed, that is not about to happen. Contrary to what so many hysterical people seem to think Japan is nowhere near being a belligerent or “far-right” country. Far-right political parties have an electoral record ranging from zero to miniscule and the country is so politically correct even flying the national flag or singing the national anthem is considered controversial because it might offend the neighbors. However, it should be obvious to everyone by now (or at least those who choose to use their brains) that no apology and no amount of money in reparations will ever be enough for the critics. For crying out loud, they’re even starting to complain about Japanese textbooks! When foreign countries are able to tell you where you can and cannot worship and what you can and cannot teach your children, what part of your land belongs to them and what bits belong to you and what you can and cannot do to defend yourselves -that is when you know you are not an independent country. I never hear Japan complaining about Chinese textbooks (or “book” as they have one official curriculum for the whole country) that portray the mass murdering dictator Mao as a great hero. 

The disgusting double-standard toward Japan on the part of her republican neighbors has to stop. The only thing more infuriating is the disgustingly large number of people who go along with such a transparent work of manipulation! Japan needs to stop apologizing, stop trying to appease and become a strong, independent country again with a healthy national pride. And there are a number of other countries in Europe and North America in particular that could stand to do the same. An apology never solved anything and no amount of money can ever undo what has already been done. Putting aside the complex situation prior to the war, all generations since the war have done nothing to anyone. They have been as peaceful as lambs and it is wrong to continue to vilify people and force them to pay for the actions of others. Personally, I never understood what good comes from an apology anyway. Japan should stand up for itself, stop offering apologies that are never going to be accepted and move forward. If the communists cannot get over the past, that is their problem and no one else’s. I am sick of the bullying that successful countries put up with from backward and savage regimes, I’m sick of the internal nitpicking and self-loathing that has crippled so many once proud nations and I am a very … Mad Monarchist.  

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi remains one of the giant figures of Japanese history and an embodiment of the great warrior leaders or daimyo who oversaw the unification of Japan and set the country on course to become a major power. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was also known as a particularly great general and military leader who launched a massive invasion of Korea and harbored grand ambitions for the future of Japan. His victories were so brilliant and his vision so grandiose that later western historians would nickname him the “Japanese Napoleon”. In Japan itself he was a key figure in uniting the country, establishing law and order, ending slavery and leaving behind a magnificent cultural legacy in everything from buildings and monuments to the tea ceremony. He reunified Japan, replacing the Sengoku period with his own Momoyama period. Much of his origins remain a mystery but he was probably born in either 1536 or 1537 in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya to a simple peasant soldier. Sent to a temple for his education as a boy, Hideyoshi soon ran away and changed his name, looking for adventure and opportunity.

He traveled quite a bit, working for this or that daimyo or lesser local rulers before returning to his home province (Owari) in 1557 and joining the military forces of his lord the famous Oda Nobunaga. This man would have a great influence on his life as it was Nobunaga who first started the campaign to unify Japan under a single government and set the pattern for shogun rule which would last until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. However, he would have to rise from the bottom up as he began in just about the lowest form of service. However, he was observant, learned quickly and showed a great deal of natural talent. He witnessed the battle of Okehazama which was one of the most significant victories of Nobunaga in 1560 and married the following year. He gained greater prominence by supervising the repair and strengthening of Sunomata Castle deep in enemy territory. Hideyoshi went on to show his diplomatic as well as strategic skills in forcing the surrender of some enemy positions and gaining the allegiance of numerous local lords and samurai for the flag of Nobunaga. Because of all of this, and his increasingly valuable military service, such as in the fall of Inabayama Castle in 1567, Hideyoshi rose to become one of Nobunaga’s most trusted generals.

He played a key role in the victorious battle of Anegawa in which the Oda forces allied with the Tokugawa in 1570 and three years later Nobunaga made him daimyo of three districts from which base he further established himself and became very important in organizing logistical support such as in the increased production of muskets and in 1576 he again took the field to conquer Chugoku. After 1582, when Nobunaga was assassinated, Hideyoshi gained the support of many clan leaders and in the aftermath defeated his rivals to be recognized as the successor of Nobunaga. In 1583 he began building Osaka Castle which would be the primary base of the Toyotomi clan and which remains one of the most recognizable landmarks in Japan today and a symbol of the cultural heritage of the country. When through warfare and diplomacy he overcame Tokugawa Ieyasu which effectively made him the most powerful man in Japan. In 1585 he was named regent, along with other titles and in 1588 had the honor of hosting His Majesty Emperor Go-Yozei. He subdued further regions and by 1590 had eliminated all domestic resistance to his rule.

With Japan united under his rule the aging Hideyoshi turned his eyes west and took up the long-held dream of his former lord Nobunaga to conquer the Ming Empire of China and dominating the trade routes to Europe. This was certainly an ambitious plan but certainly not impossible as few would have expected that the Mongols could have conquered China either. The key for this campaign, however, was Korea as the peninsula was the only viable route for Japanese forces to reach China. Hideyoshi opened talks with the Koreans, whose king was a vassal of the Ming Emperor (as most surrounding monarchs were) hoping that they would allow Japanese forces to pass through Korea unmolested. To do so, however, the Koreans knew they would be counted as enemies by the Chinese and if, on the other hand, they refused, China would be obliged to help defend them. However, China had problems of its own and the Korean government was critically divided against itself. With no cooperation forthcoming and Korean and Chinese forces both distracted, it was the perfect time for Hideyoshi to strike.

In 1592 the first Japanese troops landed in Korea and by the following month they had swept aside all opposition and occupied the royal capital of Seoul, the court fleeing to Pyongyang until that city too fell to the Japanese. By the following year though resistance was mounting as Ming Emperor Wanli dispatched a large Chinese army to Korea to block the Japanese advance and re-conquer the peninsula. The combined Sino-Korean forces began pushing the Japanese back, re-taking Pyongyang and advancing into the south before stalling in front of Seoul. Hideyoshi sent another expeditionary force to Korea but they were barely able to hold their own against the masses of Chinese troops to their front and debilitating Korean guerilla warfare in their rear. The Japanese still managed to fight off several massive offensives before Hideyoshi accepted that victory was impossible and ordered them to withdraw. He died on September 18, 1598 before the retreat was completed and the sad news was kept secret until all the warriors were back on Japanese soil.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi died on September 18, 1598 but his legacy lived on and remnants are still around today. He did some things that were good and some things were probably not so good but his impact was immense. He unified Japan like never before and proved that a united Japan could be a major power. He left behind many magnificent buildings and new traditions, he is often criticized for disarming the population and making the samurai a permanent, established warrior class, yet, while this did almost end any sort of social mobility, there were benefits that came with it too. Farmers could concentrate on farming and the samurai could concentrate on perfecting their martial skills. His restrictions on movement wiped out banditry and made the country more peaceful and secure and the better organization improved the fairness of taxation. He abolished slavery and established a ruling council of five daimyo to ensure the stable continuation of the unified Japan. His only son having predeceased him, after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi power was eventually taken by Tokugawa Ieyasu who maintained the foundations Hideyoshi had put in place to become the first shogun and open the era of shogun rule which lasted until the Meiji Restoration.

America and Japan - Who Wanted War?

It was December 8, 1941 that the United States and the Republic of China (or at least the leading faction claiming power) declared war on the Empire of Japan in reaction to the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The first questionable thing that should jump out to the public about that is that China, which had been engaged in hostilities with Japan for most of the last decade, was not at war with Japan already. Why do you suppose that was? We’ll get back to that in a moment, but the first, preliminary fact which must be addressed is whether or not this was a just action on the part of the United States. To even pose such a question will outrage not a few. The United States had just been attacked and had most of her Pacific fleet bombed to bits. However, I have often been challenged, as a monarchist, on the subject of World War II, specifically as it relates to the Empire of Japan as that was the last time that the United States went to war against a monarchy (and actually more than one of course, but few realize it).

Two of the three main Axis powers in World War II were monarchies but since Mussolini so obviously dominated Italy, the King there is usually ignored, but in the case of Japan, U.S. propagandists early on singled out the Showa Emperor as the great villain, not because he was actually managing all policies in Japan, but mostly because the U.S. propagandists wished to highlight the Japanese monarchy as something backward, foreign and creepy. Since Japan was not a dictatorship like Germany, but was a constitutional monarchy with several changes in government leadership and prime ministers throughout this period, the Emperor was the only consistent figure that the U.S. could label as the “bad guy” comparable to Hitler and Mussolini (though later Prime Minister Tojo would be used to fit the bill). So the war with Japan has often been brought up to me as the challenge against monarchy that cannot be refuted because World War II was the “good war” and President Roosevelt was one of the greatest American presidents and so on and so forth.

In my book, FDR was one of the worst presidents in American history, partly because of the actions listed here. As for World War II being the “good war” I have no sweeping statement on the subject. Some people think no wars are ever “good” but I am not one of them. However, even World War II was not as clear-cut as some people think. The fight against Hitler meant an alliance with Joseph Stalin (who actually killed more people than Hitler did) and ended with half of Europe being consigned to slavery behind the Soviet “Iron Curtain”. Likewise, in the Far East, it meant the expansion of communism and gave rise to many brutal dictators and many bloody civil wars as well as ending with a nuclear attack that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Roosevelt could have made an argument for U.S. intervention in the war in Europe against Hitler. There were circumstances of course, but Hitler had conquered Poland, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia and Greece so a case could be made that he was a menace to world peace and needed to be stopped. However, Japan was a completely different story.

By that same point, the Empire of Japan had made no hostile moves against any neutral or Allied powers. Japanese forces were occupied in fighting the Chinese, as they had been for years, and even the fact that America, Britain and others were funneling money, weapons and even personnel to help the Chinese had not prompted Japan to take any action. Even China had not admitted that their “trouble” with Japan was an actual war, mostly because no one faction wanted to take the risk. The nationalists and the communists both hated each other as much if not more than the Japanese and when Japanese forces occupied Manchuria the republican government, so bitterly divided among itself, made no official effort to defend the region. In any event, from a legal standpoint, according to China as well as Japan, there was no “war” in the Far East at all. Japan had made no aggressive moves against anyone and even the “occupation” of French Indochina (actually only a few bases in Vietnam) was done with the permission of the French government in Vichy which the United States itself still recognized as the legal government of France. Hitler was attacking countries left, right and center but Japan certainly was not.

Roosevelt, however, did first involve himself in World War II in Europe but only around the spring and summer of 1941. The summer of 41 was of course when Hitler launched his invasion of the Soviet Union. President Roosevelt had been the first U.S. President to recognize the Soviet Union as a legitimate government by the way. FDR took such measures against Germany that he told the American Ambassador to France that conflict with Germany was “certain” and only waited for Hitler to cause some incident that FDR could point to in order to gain public support for the war. However, Hitler refused to bite and there was not much the President could do to “get at” Hitler directly. However, unlike Germany, Japan was an island nation that depended on resources and raw materials imported from abroad to survive. He could wage an economic war against Japan that would back them into a corner and force them to strike the first blow, allowing FDR to be “forced” to take the U.S. into the war against Germany as well as Japan.

In the summer of 1941 FDR enacted a number of anti-Japanese policies which he knew would force Japan to respond. It was a conflict he wanted and not the Japanese who knew full well that any war with the United States would be disastrous at best and most probably end in their defeat. The last thing Japan wanted to do was to fight the United States. Most historians have long agreed that the Japanese were increasingly desperate to negotiate some sort of settlement with the United States but we now know that Roosevelt and Secretary Hull refused to negotiate at all. Japan would offer compromises and concessions which the Roosevelt administration would counter with even more demands. When Japan decided that, after a certain point, war would be their only option, Roosevelt broke off the negotiations, hoping for that very calamity. His own Attorney General said that FDR told him he was hoping for some “incident” in the Pacific that would unite the American people in support of his administration and for going to war (a war he had promised to keep the U.S. out of when running for reelection, but, hey, Wilson had done the same thing in WW1).

There really should be nothing “new” or “controversial” about any of this. Admirers of FDR even praise him for doing this. There is really no room for debate on the point any more that the embargo FDR put on Japan, and he persuaded the British government and the Dutch government-in-exile to do the same, were intended to force Japan to either surrender their national sovereignty and control over their own affairs or to launch an attack on the United States or one of the Allied powers. All of this was undertaken against a country that had made no aggressive move against any foreign power aside from China who they were already fighting and had been for some time. FDR’s soon-to-be ally Joseph Stalin had invaded more foreign countries than Japan had, having occupied Mongolia, attacked Finland, conquered Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and who had joined Hitler in the partition of Poland. None of these facts are in dispute. FDR and members of his cabinet had long advocated the use of sanctions against Japan to thwart their progress and, it must be said, their economic competition with the United States for control of the vast markets of China.

There is no doubt at all that FDR intended to use economic measures to force Japan into an impossible position. There is no doubt that the administration knew that Japan was going to launch an attack and, since they had already broken the Japanese naval codes, there is no doubt that they knew Pearl Harbor would be a target. There is no doubt that Washington DC knew but failed to warn the commanders at Pearl Harbor that an attack was eminent on the morning of December 7, 1941 just as there is no doubt that the Japanese government, including the Emperor, intended for a declaration of war to be given at least half an hour before the attack was to take place. It was only due to a poor typist at the Japanese embassy that this did not happen, yet it was portrayed as a sneaky, underhanded, “surprise” attack by the FDR administration. I cannot stress enough that there is no disputing these facts. Even the BBC did a special documentary recounting how the “surprise attack” on Pearl Harbor was no surprise at all.

Unfortunately, very few people choose to point these facts out. Today it is largely the libertarians who are isolationist and against any intervention under any circumstances, that will even talk about these facts. Some also make the mistake of attributing it to FDR being an Anglophile. If only that were true! On the contrary, FDR made it perfectly clear that he considered the dismantling of the British Empire a top priority, second only to the defeat of the Axis. It seems to me that if FDR admired anyone that was fighting against Hitler at that time it was Joseph Stalin. FDR was always suspicious of British motives but never of Stalin, famously saying that Stalin was at least “not an imperialist”. By the time the war ended the British Empire was on the road to collapse while the Soviet Union was bigger and more powerful than ever, having been handed all of Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia. It should also be remembered that the entire foreign policy of Japan on the Asian mainland was motivated by anti-communism and their desire to protect themselves from communist expansion. I cannot say that I know for certain what the motivations of Roosevelt were in his intentionally provoking Japan into war. What is certain is that he did it. He wanted war, Japan did not. He could have made a compelling case for intervention in Europe against Germany but he could not have made such a case against Japan. Roosevelt is not an admirable figure, he was certainly not honest with the Japanese, nor was he honest with the British and he was not honest with the American people either.

The American troops who went to war on December 8, 1941 did so with courage, valor and righteous ideals. They sacrificed for their country, committed great deeds of heroism and won a hard fought victory. No one can ever, ever take that away from them. The same can be said for all of the British, Canadian, Australian, South African, Indian and other imperial and commonwealth troops who fought for their King and country. None of that is in dispute. Neither, however, is the unfortunate fact that their courage and heroism was matched by the callousness and duplicity of the Roosevelt administration, particularly in regards to the war against Japan which had not wanted war with America, which had enough trouble on hand already and refused to join the German invasion of Russia, which had not wanted to stop being allies with Britain for that matter but which was forced into a terrible conflict that ended with things being worse rather than better for the region as a whole as with Japan standing as the only country in the world (so far) to be subject to a nuclear attack. These things should be considered before holding on to grudges or making sweeping generalizations about the nations involved in World War II. Pleasant or not, facts are facts.

The Taisho Emperor

His Imperial Highness Prince Yoshihito of Japan was born at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo on August 31, 1879 to Their Majesties the Meiji Emperor and his consort Empress Shoken. He was not the firstborn son but, as his two older brothers died very young, Prince Yoshihito eventually became crown prince and heir-to-the-throne. Prince Yoshihito himself was often in frail health. As a newborn he came down with cerebral meningitis and, although he was able to recover, he was never extremely robust physically for the rest of his life. Until he was seven-years-old he was raised in the household of Prince Nakayama Tadayasu. In 1885 he was transferred to the Aoyama Detached Palace and started his formal education, studying the usual mixture of reading, writing and arithmetic but with added lessons on the Shinto religion, Japanese morality and the place of the Emperor and Imperial Family in society. In the afternoons he exercised by playing sports, however, his studies and activities were often interrupted by his recurring fevers. The following year he began to take his lessons with a select group of other students from a local school for the aristocracy to learn how to interact with others.

On August 31, 1887 Prince Yoshihito was formally declared heir-to-the-throne and Crown Prince of Japan with his formal investiture being held the following year on an auspicious date chosen by the court astrologers. He continued his education but was not a particularly remarkable student. Because of some of his later behavior some have exaggerated the disabilities of the Taisho Emperor to the point that he is portrayed as totally incompetent. This was definitely not the case for while he lagged behind in certain subjects he excelled at others. He had a remarkable gift for languages and was an adept horseman. Much of his difficulty doubtlessly originated in his poor health which did not allow him to devote the time to his studies that was necessary. He spent a great deal of time on the coast where the climate was deemed healthier for his fragile disposition. He was finally withdrawn from school and tutored privately after being placed in the care of Prince Takehito by the Emperor, with whom he would become close friends.

In 1898 the Crown Prince began attending sessions of the House of Peers in the National Diet to learn about politics and military and diplomatic affairs as part of his preparation for the throne. He hosted receptions for foreign diplomats and showed good conversational skills. French and Chinese officials were impressed that the Crown Prince could converse with them in their own languages. He became very interested in the western world and was fond of speaking French, sometimes speaking French and Japanese at the same time which the Emperor did not always find amusing. For a time he even sported a long, upturned moustache in the fashion of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Crown Prince Yoshihito also started undertaking official tours on behalf of the Emperor, visiting naval installations, factories, schools, temples and government offices; keeping an eye on how the rapid modernization of Japan was progressing on every level. Yet, there did seem to be something not quite “right” about the heir-to-the-throne and this worried the imperial court a great deal. So, when the time came for him to marry in 1900 care was taken to choose a bride of remarkable intelligence, bearing and speech.

A better choice would have hardly seemed possible and on May 10 the Crown Prince married the 15-year-old daughter of Prince Kujo Michitaka, Kujo Sadako (later known as Empress Teimei) of the illustrious Fujiwara clan. She proved to be the ideal imperial wife, ever supportive of her husband and compensating for his deficiencies in a most delicate way. The two were a devoted couple and within a year of their wedding the first of their four sons were born, Prince Hirohito, the future Showa Emperor. When war approached with the Russian Empire, Crown Prince Yoshihito was appointed to the rank of colonel in the army and captain in the navy though, of course, he was denied actual service. Nonetheless, he took his military duties and the war very seriously and was constantly visiting the troops, inspecting installations and encouraging the wounded. After the war he took it upon himself to learn Korean (though he never became fluent at it) after making a tour of Korea and meeting the Korean Royal Family; his visit marking the first time that a Crown Prince had ever left Japanese soil.

Not long after, in 1912, the Meiji Emperor passed away and Crown Prince Yoshihito became Emperor of Japan. However, it was not quite the glorious occasion one usually associates with a royal succession. The mental health afflictions of the new Emperor had been increasing and he was beginning to display a growing number of physical handicaps as well. Again, some of his odd behavior has been rather exaggerated but, nonetheless, the Imperial Household was extremely worried about protecting the public image of the Emperor as well as his own health. As a result, the Taisho Emperor rarely appeared in public and, indeed, seldom ventured beyond the walls of the Imperial Palace. Within ten years of his enthronement he had ceased all official duties and Crown Prince Hirohito was appointed to carry out his obligations for him, being named Prince Regent in late 1921. He remained secluded from the outside world, carefully attended by his devoted Empress, and kept informed of national events by his son via carrier pigeons. After coming down with pneumonia the Taisho Emperor suffered a heart attack and passed away on December 25, 1926 at the Imperial Villa in Hayama at the age of only 47.

Empress Michiko

The current Empress consort of Japan has been a groundbreaking figure in many ways. She was the first commoner to ever marry into the Japanese Imperial Family and has easily been the most visible, prominent and widely traveled of any consort in Japanese history. Her life has not always been easy but she has proven to be exactly what Japan, in this day and age, expects of an empress consort. She was born on October 20, 1934 in Tokyo, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and flour mill tycoon. Her education in Tokyo was interrupted by the American bombing campaign during World War II but she returned after the war was over and attended a prominent private Catholic school. Over the years this has been the focus of some trumped up controversy with rumors spread that the Empress is privately a Catholic.

She also started her higher education in a Catholic institution, graduating from Tokyo’s Sacred Heart University in 1957 with a literature degree. She later attended Harvard in the US and Oxford in the UK where, aside from her formal studies, she gained a good grasp of the English language. It has been alleged by certain writers that during this time there was an attempt to arrange a marriage between Michiko and the now famous reactionary writer Yukio Mishima. If so, nothing came of it and in August of 1957 she met the man who was to become her husband, the then Crown Prince Akihito of Japan at a tennis match in Karuizawa. The two hit it off and by the end of the next year the Imperial Household Agency formally approved and announced their engagement.

The marriage of a common-born girl, even a wealthy one, to the heir to the Chrysanthemum throne came as a great surprise to the Japanese public. Some hard-line traditionalists were outraged by the match but, considering all of the drastic changes Japan had recently been through, most took it as it came and soon came to love the pretty and intelligent young lady their crown prince had chosen. On April 10, 1959 the two were married, despite the rumored opposition of the Empress Kojun. This objection on the part of Michiko’s mother-in-law went rather extreme at one point, depending on who one chooses to believe, but it is all rumors as the Japanese monarchy has always been very good about keeping any private troubles private.

In 1960 the Imperial couple welcomed their fist child into the world, Prince Naruhito, ensuring the succession for the immediate future, followed by Prince Akishino in 1965 and Princess Nori in 1969. Contrary to established tradition, the Crown Princely couple insisted on raising their children themselves to try to establish a more close and warm family bond. In 1989 their status was raised with the passing of the Showa Emperor at which point Akihito and Michiko officially became the Emperor and Empress of Japan. It was an immense responsibility to undertake and the IHA even admitted that Empress Michiko was having some health issues related to stress.

In the following years ever since Empress Michiko has been a devoted mother and a great source of strength to the Emperor, going on almost all of his trips and foreign tours making her, by far, the most widely traveled consort in Japanese history. She has shown herself to be a remarkably strong woman, adjusting to the immense difficulties of imperial life and succeeding brilliantly, becoming a beloved member of the Imperial Family and setting an example of what the Japanese ideal for a wife and mother should be while at the same time being a more modern woman than past consorts, very well educated and as adept at discussing history and literature as she is expert at playing the piano. She remains a very busy Empress attending hundreds of meetings every year on charitable and cultural topics, visiting areas all across Japan and assisting her husband in his official receptions and religious duties.

The Showa Emperor

The late Showa Emperor of Japan, Hirohito, was the longest reigning monarch in modern Japanese history and one of the most controversial. His reign saw the peak of Japanese power as well as the greatest devastation the country has ever suffered and was a turning point in history, the end of one era and the beginning of another. He was born on April 29, 1901 at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo to Crown Prince Yoshihito and Crown Princess Sadako of Japan and was given the name and title of Prince Michi. His grandfather, the Meiji Emperor, died in 1912 and his father became Emperor Taisho of Japan. In 1916 he was formally named Crown Prince. He was given a mix of traditional and modern western education during his childhood and as a young man was the first Japanese royal to travel overseas to make Japan more visible on the world stage and strengthen foreign relations. For six months he traveled the world visiting Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy.

In 1921 Crown Prince Hirohito was named regent of the Empire of Japan due to the failing mental faculties of his father. Numerous political and diplomatic events of great significance happened during these years but perhaps none were to have such a far-reaching impact as the ending of the Anglo-Japanese alliance. This was done by Britain to placate the United States, Britain gambling that American friendship would be more beneficial than Japanese friendship. The leadership in Japan took it as an insult and tantamount to a betrayal. The course of history would show that America had no great love for defending the British Empire and making an enemy of Japan left all of the east Asian holdings of Great Britain vulnerable to a rising Japan. The Japanese were further angered by numerous treaties that followed aimed at limiting their naval power in comparison to the other major powers.

Nonetheless, from the time of his youth when the alliance was intact, Hirohito had been greatly impressed by the British, an island nation like Japan, which ruled a vast empire and which was based on a monarch that reigned but did not rule. This basic system would be one Hirohito held to throughout his time on the Chrysanthemum throne. In 1924 he married his distant cousin Princess Nagako Kuni and the two eventually had a large family of five girls and two boys though not all long survived. In 1926 the Taisho Emperor died and Hirohito formally became the Emperor of Japan with the era name of Showa (“Enlightened Peace”). However, this was not to be a time of political peace for Japan which was still struggling to modernize, industrialize and, to some extent, westernize while at the same time fighting to maintain their traditional culture and values against subversive new threats from abroad.

The Depression hit Japan especially hard. There were too many mouths to feed, too few raw materials to feed the new industrialization and many feared losing their own identity in the flood of foreign trends and ideas sweeping Japan. Governments rose and fell rapidly and the Showa Emperor himself was nearly assassinated by a Korean dissident in 1932. Amidst all of the tumult it was the military and the spiritual-political symbol of the divine Emperor that alone seemed capable of uniting the country, providing stability and a path to overcoming the current problems to achieve a vision of greatness for the Japanese Empire. Many have since come to view the Showa Emperor as complicit in the military takeover but such is not the case. When military officers tried to take power in a coup the Emperor ordered a crackdown and threatened to take charge of the troops himself to suppress them.

The Emperor did, however, like most Japanese at the time, realize that they needed secure sources of raw materials to feed their economic recovery and overseas expansion was the way to accomplish this. It was the way every other great power operated and what they had all been doing for centuries; why should Japan be left out? The Emperor did not object to the takeover of Manchuria and he was genuinely kind and supportive when meeting with the last Emperor of China who was placed on the Manchu throne. He had a more clear grasp on world affairs than he is often given credit for. He sympathized with the plight of his fellow monarch, did not look kindly on the corrupt and chaotic Republic of China and viewed the USSR as a terror. Yet, he was not a part of running the government or the military which, especially in China, often acted on its own with its own agenda quite apart from Tokyo.

Unlike many high-ranking Japanese the Showa Emperor did not welcome the alliance with Italy and especially Nazi Germany. It was only after the Axis forces in Europe seemed to have the war all but won that he finally, reluctantly, consented to the idea of Japan being partners with Germany and Italy. When his military came to him with the plan for war against the USA he was deeply troubled and doubted their grandiose aims could be accomplished, noting that they had not totally pacified China in the time promised and that the Pacific was considerably larger than China. Breaking with tradition, he shocked his council by addressing them directly about his wish for a peaceful solution to the problems Japan was facing but this did not stop the drive to war. He issued the declaration of war against the US and UK but was still concerned about how this conflict was carried out.

After the stunning success at Pearl Harbor the Emperor again broke tradition by directly questioning the flight commander, Mitsuo Fuchida, whether any civilian areas had been hit in the bombing (they were not). This was a great concern to him and the attacking forces had been told repeatedly that only military units and installations were to be targeted. Throughout the rest of the war the Emperor did what he could to boost morale and give helpful advice. Given the behavior of the military on certain occasions this is often made to seem sinister but it should not be considered outrageous that the Emperor of Japan wanted his country to be victorious. When it became clear that Japan would lose the war he was not the first to face this fact nor was he the last and when he determined that the time had come to negotiate an end to the war he was opposed at every turn.

After two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan there could be no more delay. Facing the threat of nuclear annihilation the Emperor took decisive action to order the surrender to save his country. He recorded an announcement that had to be smuggled out of the palace to the radio station because of an uprising by the military which was intent on fighting on to the death. The first time the Japanese people ever heard the voice of their divine Emperor was when the message came over the radio announcing the surrender. Japan would, as the Emperor said, “bear the unbearable”. For a country that had not known defeat in centuries and which had never been conquered by an outside force, his sentiments were sincere and correct. Japan surrendered, officially unconditionally, but with the assurance of the US that the fate of the Emperor would rest in the hands of the Japanese people who revered him.

Many in the US and other Allied countries wanted the Emperor put on trial for war crimes; holding him responsible for all actions of the military who all served in his name. However, General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the Allied occupation forces, was adamant that the Emperor had to be kept in place. His status was diminished and he was forced to renounce his divinity but he was a symbol of such great importance that MacArthur feared Japanese society would come apart if he was removed. Instead, the Emperor would henceforth be the “symbol of the state” with no political power or role. Emperor Showa had to reinvent himself as a modern, more western-style “people’s monarch”. He tried to make the occupation and the unprecedented changes Japan was going through at breakneck speed go as smoothly as possible.

Emperor Showa attempted to apologize for the misdeeds of Japanese forces during the war but was snubbed by MacArthur. He also refused to honor any war dead that included convicted war criminals. For the first time he visited the Japanese people and met them face to face -which took some getting used to for all concerned. He even visited the United States and was a crucial figure of tradition and stability during the tumultuous years that saw Japan change more radically and thoroughly that at any other time in her ancient history by far. After the longest reign in modern Japanese history Emperor Showa died on January 7, 1989 and was succeeded by his son HIH Crown Prince Akihito, the current Emperor of Japan. He was buried next to his father in the Imperial Mausoleum at Hachioji. His legacy has been debated ever since and he remains one of the most controversial as well as one of the most significant monarchs in Japanese history.