JAPAN'S EMPERORS: 1930S and 1940s TO THE PRESENT

To most non- lacquerese, one of the most puzzling aspects of modern Japan is its juxtaposition of the ultramodern and the traditional in all in all spheres of life, such as its high-speed economic growth which has raised Japan, a country with few inborn resources, to the status of a global economic superpower, which co-exists with cultural patterns which in many respects leave remained unchanged for centuries. The same body politic which rampaged through East Asia and the Pacific region in the 30s and 40s, instigating struggles of expansion, committing war crimes and atrocities and defending its conquests with ferocious and fatalistic fanaticism, all the while trumpeting its afraid(predicate) slogans of racist superiority to other peoples, has since 1945 been a model of accountable inter bailiwick conduct. Domestic terror and authoritarian rule have been replaced by a viable if imperfect democracy. As Allinson puts it, "Japan is always changing, often in contradictory directions."

The most enduring of all Japanese institutions has been its emperorship, which nevertheless has undergone significant changes since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and particularly since the end of World War II. Its origins lie deeply hide in the mists of prehistoric times. According to legends, first written win by the Yamato clan in the 7th century

AD, the first emperor Jimmu (660 BC) was directly descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami. Seishisai express "our Divine Land is where the sun rises and where the primordial energy originates. The heirs of the with child(p) Sun have occupied the Imperial Throne from coevals to generation without change from time immemorial." According to Behr, Jimmu "was in all probability the first in a series of tribal chiefs to leave their mark on one of the islands of the Japanese archipelago," and the legends of Jimmu and his successors were appropriated by the later centralizing Yamatos to give their reign legitimacy.

The institution of the emperor loomed large in their scheme for it had always stood for kokutai or national polity, consisting of the divinity and confidence of the imperial dynasty and the stability of the hierarchical and group-oriented affectionate structure which had evolved over the centuries. An old Japanese proverb held that "the dispatch that sticks up will be hammered down." The emperor non only would be retained but his authority and submit with the Japanese people would be greatly enhanced. According to Mosley, "in place of the feudal chief, the men behind the throne gave them a national god, the emperor." The Hooblers said that "Meiji's advisers used the emperor's religious role to get on the national unity they needed to carry out the modernisation of Japan." According to Reischauer, "the central concern of the oligarchs was to protect the emperor's prerogatives because these gave them their own authority and justification for rule." Accordingly, the Constitution provided that the emperor was 'sacred and inviolable,' and he was invested with all crowned head attributes, including the power to declare war, make peace and conclude treaties. The cabinet and even the military served at his pleasure as arrogant commander. He was the head of the state religion, State Shinto. All train children were taught to bow in reverence and swear obedience daily to
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