Word: hirohito
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...weekend Japan mourned the late Emperor Hirohito. But by Monday morning it was business as usual. Proving that few events, not even the death of an imperial leader who reigned for more than six decades, can turn off their entrepreneurial juices for long, eager businessmen besieged a Justice Ministry office to stake claim to use of the word Heisei (achieving universal peace), the name chosen to designate Emperor Akihito's reign. On Monday the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei average climbed to 31,006.51, an all-time high...
...audience was just one of 20 ceremonies leading to Hirohito's state funeral on Feb. 24. That rite has provoked some consternation abroad, as more than 100 nations decide who will attend. For some countries that fought against Japan during World War II or suffered savage casualties in Japanese prison camps, the choice is by no means simple, even 45 years later. They must weigh the political cost of offending veterans against the damage that could result from bruising the sensitivities of a country that plays a commanding role in the world economy...
...fierce battle raged in Australia, where some veterans groups denounced Hirohito as the "biggest war criminal on earth." Said Bruce Ruxton, Victorian president of the Returned Services League: "Going to his funeral would be like going to the funeral of the devil." Prime Minister Bob Hawke skirted a decision by acceding to protocol, which does not usually require the Australian head of government to attend the funeral of a head of state...
...defused the issue, but the president of the National Federation of Far Eastern Prisoners of War Association, Harold Payne, reportedly said Mountbatten "would turn in his grave" if he knew of the Prince Consort's plans. Likely to roil the waters further is an upcoming BBC documentary contending that Hirohito must have known of the 1937 rape of Nanking, in which Japanese troops butchered at least 20,000 Chinese, and that he knew at least a month beforehand of the plan to attack Pearl Harbor...
...shedding of divine status came naturally, perhaps, to a man who had never seemed at home amid the panoply of godhood. Instead of the ornate Imperial Palace, Hirohito chose to live in a nondescript two-story Western- style house deep inside the palace grounds. Rather than hold court in resplendent formal dress, he preferred to putter around in battered Panama hat and short-sleeved shirt. More than formal dinners, he relished quiet nights at home with Empress Nagako, now 85, a cheerful wife with whom he had two sons and five daughters...