Word: chamberlaine
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...during Japan's war against China's decadent Manchu Empire (1894-5) and against Russia's hapless Tsarist Navy (1904-5). Before his retirement in 1927, he rose to the Navy's supreme command. Then he joined the inner circle of the Court. As Grand Chamberlain he walked a few respectful paces behind Hirohito at public functions (see cut), helped name the Emperor's first born son. Most important, he served as the door through which the warlords had access to the throne...
...young officers" of the hotheaded Kwantung Army clique thought of him as an old dodderer, a "moderate," an obstacle to the quick construction of Dai Nippon (Great Japan). One February night in 1936 they called at his house. The Grand Chamberlain had just come through Tokyo's snowy streets from dinner and movies at the U.S. Embassy-a "happy evening," Ambassador Joseph Grew noted in his diary. The young officers had just come from their barracks, with swords and submachine guns...
They had already called on Premier Admiral Keisuke Okada, who escaped by hiding in a servant's closet. Having no such presence of mind, the Grand Chamberlain, confronted by 100 wild-eyed soldiers, argued with them for ten minutes. When words failed, he straightened up, commanded: "Then shoot me!" They did, and he crumpled in a pool of blood. The rebels burned incense over his body, saluted and hurried off. The incense and the salute were premature. The Grand Chamberlain somehow survived...
...Elder Statesman. He still spoke with authority-but only for himself. In time his white-thatched, black-caped figure appeared less & less often in London, more & more often on his Surrey and Caernarvonshire estates. But World War II brought him to his feet in Commons to give Prime Minister Chamberlain a piece of his mind for sending the Finns "too little and too late...
...Critic John Chapman in his review: "License Commissioner Paul Moss last night sponsored a dirty show which had in it bawds, a pimp and a couple of Lesbians." And Columnist Leonard Lyons recalled that Moss once co-produced Noel Coward's This Was a Man, which the Lord Chamberlain banned in England as indecent...