Word: emperor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Japan's Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi is a descendant of the swaggering but practical men of Choshu. Less than a century ago his clansmen enthusiastically followed the Emperor's orders by opening fire on all foreign ships passing through Shimonoseki Strait, the narrow western entrance to the lovely Inland Sea. Retaliation came from a combined British, French, Dutch and U.S. fleet, which blew the Choshu batteries skyhigh, put ashore a landing party to seize the forts, and collected an indemnity of $3,000,000.-Impressed, the Choshu leaders fraternized with the Western officers, begged technical advice and sought...
...born in Yamaguchi, a pleasant city above the Inland Sea, on Nov. 23, 1896. From childhood he had drummed into him the glories of the Sato family, the Choshu clan and the warrior class. Aristocratic Moyo Sato constantly reminded her son that their ancestors had been charged by the Emperor with guarding Shimonoseki Strait, the gateway to the Inland Sea. Her uncle was a major general who founded the Japanese cavalry; her brothers and sisters married into top families, including the Matsuokas and Yo-shidas. "Never forget you are a samurai," she said. "Never take second place...
...picking fights with bigger and older boys," a habit he has not yet outgrown. In middle school, Nobusuke wrote an essay praising the suicide of General Maresuke Nogi, the hero who captured Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War and later disemboweled himself on the death of his beloved Emperor Meiji in 1912. The act had shocked the West and produced a critical editorial in the London Times, but Nobusuke hailed it as an example of virtuous idealism...
Kishi served the Japanese war machine faithfully and well, and he makes no bones of it. When a newsman tactfully suggested in 1957 that Kishi had no option but to accept the Emperor's decision to go to war, he replied curtly: "I have no wish to defend myself that way. All the state ministers were responsible for assisting the Emperor to make the decision." As always, Kishi had a practical plan. Japan, he argued, was using only 10% of its production in the war with China ("Chicken feed!"), and by properly organizing the remainder could win quick military...
...Jesuits are now worried that the Emperor's flirtation with Tito will mean their replacement by Yugoslavs. Worse, the Russians are setting up an Ethiopian technical school for 1,000 students to be taught by an all-Russian faculty. By the time the Emperor launches his projected degree-granting Haile Selassie University, it may be no source of Western comfort...