Word: meiji
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Emperor had chosen "Meiji setsu" -birthday of the Emperor Meiji, who made Japan a modern power and Shinto a war-inspiring state religion-to proclaim democracy. Tokyo's famous Meiji shrine staged a three-day festival that included a tea ceremony and geisha dances, but at the same time the government began distribution of new "democratic" photographs of the Emperor, in civilian instead of military dress. Nagasaki residents held a snake dance and a poetry contest on the subject: "Reconstruction from the Atomic Bomb...
Something Borrowed. Emperor Meiji's 1889 Constitution had proclaimed that "We [the Emperor] have inherited from Our Ancestors the rights of sovereignty . . . and We shall bequeath them to Our descendants." MacArthurian rhetoric, linking the phrases of Jefferson, Lincoln, and F.D.R., gave Japan a new ruler. "We, the Japanese people . . . do proclaim the sovereignty of the people's will." The Emperor was reduced to a "symbol of the state and of the unity of the people's will." Young Prince Akihito may still inherit a throne, but not a seat of power...
...driving snowstorm this week several hundred blue-clad, brass-buttoned students gathered in the ruins of Meiji University to hold an anti-Communist rally. They had been summoned by the "League of Former Cheer Leaders of the Six Major Universities in Tokyo." Two bored, white-helmeted American MPs watched the proceedings for a minute and sniffed: "Them Commies is at it again...
Reaffirming the "national policy" announced 7$ years ago by his grandfather Meiji, who envisioned modern Japan as a popular parliamentary monarchy, Hirohito expressed concern for "the desires of the people" and his wish "always to share ... their joys and sorrows." It seemed like an effort to bring the ex-god closer to his ex-worshipers-quite in line with the Tokyo press's recent featuring of pictures of the Emperor and his Empress in civilian instead of ceremonial clothes, strolling or puttering in their garden with their children, more like people than divinities...
...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...