Word: hirohito
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From his charred palace, Emperor Hirohito, attended by a grim-miened bodyguard (see cut), drove to the Diet building. There, from his gold-and-maroon throne in the House of Peers, he addressed a joint session of the legislature. Tears welled in his eyes and euphemisms from his lips as he spoke not of defeat or surrender but of "cessation of hostilities . . . termination of the war . . . extraordinary measure. . . ." His command to his subjects: "remain cool, maintain self-composure, exercise patience and circumspection . . . win the confidence of the world . . . make manifest the innate glory of Japan's national policy...
Admiral William F. Halsey finally rang down the curtain on his vaudeville act about riding the Mikado's white horse: after all, Hirohito's personal belongings were still his. The saddle sent by Reno would go to the U.S. Naval Academy museum, unless Reno wanted...
Sitting pretty well left of center, Roth does not worry about a burgeoning U.S.S.R. He has nothing but contempt for the power politics which would use a strong and militaristic Japan as a bulwark against communism. In the same category, he places the Grew-inspired policy of catering to Hirohito "because he might turn out to be the sole stabilizing force" in a Nippon ruptured by defeat. Except, he says, for speeding the surrender (now accomplished), the U.S. cannot do business with the Emperor...
...emergence, less than 80 years ago, of Hirohito's grandfather as a qualified son of heaven was largely the result of political engineering. Japan's real rulers (a combination of militarists and industrialists) simply dusted off some ancient fables about the dynasty, rescued Emperor Meiji from obscurity and backed their traditions with iron-clad law and a state-enforced religion...
...Emperor Hirohito, with a half-billion yen of his own invested in stocks and bonds and 140,000 of 300,000 available shares of the Bank of Japan, is an interested member of this tribe...