Adrian Hamilton: Emperor's stunning intervention with only one precedent ... the 1945 surrender
[The Independent’s comment editor, Adrian Hamilton writes a weekly column largely on international affairs with particular focus on the Middle East, Iran and foreign policy issues.]
For the Japanese to wheel out their Emperor to make a televised address yesterday on the nuclear crisis is virtually unprecedented. To produce the country's most sacred figurehead in this way and to risk involving him in a situation which could become deeply political shows just how concerned the government and establishment has become not just over the dangers of a nuclear meltdown but also of public reaction to it.
Indeed there is only one proper precedent for this act, which is when Emperor Akihito's father, the Emperor Hirohito, appeared on radio on August 1945 to make the dramatic and painful announcement of his country's surrender to the Allies, despite all the promises and preparations to fight to the last man. For many Japanese, virtually all in fact, this was the first time that they had heard the "divine" figure speak at all.
Once produced for that purpose, the Emperor and his successors were put back behind closed doors, stripped of their divine status and progressively stripped of all authority save that of a constitutional monarch with far fewer powers than the British Royal Family...
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For the Japanese to wheel out their Emperor to make a televised address yesterday on the nuclear crisis is virtually unprecedented. To produce the country's most sacred figurehead in this way and to risk involving him in a situation which could become deeply political shows just how concerned the government and establishment has become not just over the dangers of a nuclear meltdown but also of public reaction to it.
Indeed there is only one proper precedent for this act, which is when Emperor Akihito's father, the Emperor Hirohito, appeared on radio on August 1945 to make the dramatic and painful announcement of his country's surrender to the Allies, despite all the promises and preparations to fight to the last man. For many Japanese, virtually all in fact, this was the first time that they had heard the "divine" figure speak at all.
Once produced for that purpose, the Emperor and his successors were put back behind closed doors, stripped of their divine status and progressively stripped of all authority save that of a constitutional monarch with far fewer powers than the British Royal Family...