In Emperor Akihito’s 2015 New Years’ Address, he asked the people to reflect on the history of the war, starting with the Manchurian Incident in 1931. This address was followed in February by a statement from his nominated successor, Crown Prince Naruhito, on the importance of remembering history ‘correctly’. Though both statements appeared vague, Akihito and Naruhito are constitutionally prohibited from involving themselves in diplomatic questions without the permission of the elected government. Therefore Jeff Kingston of Temple University has suggested that their statements need to be considered in light of Akihito’s track record on wartime responsibility.
Akihito has often expressed wishes to visit South Korea, a country to which he claims ancient family ties. In 2012, he said that in connection to a trip he would like to offer an apology for the atrocities that were committed in Korea under Japanese colonial rule. In response, the former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak claimed that if the Emperor wished to visit, he would have to sincerely apologise. If this had not happened, perhaps such a visit could have occurred. Instead, there was another heated battle of words between Korean and Japanese nationalists.
Since taking office in 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has had to balance the demands of interest-groups on the far right against the need to uphold normal relations with Japan’s neighbours. But the nationalist right has a growing influence over Japanese foreign policy. Abe’s re-examination the 1993 Kono Declaration, which apologised for the Japanese military’s use of so-called ‘comfort women’ during the war, despite the diplomatic tensions this has caused with South Korea and China is one example of this influence. Abe has close ties to right-wing organisations such as the Nippon Kaigi and the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association (Nihon Izokukai), and therefore he has to remain adamant in his criticism of a ‘masochistic’ view of history. According to one recent survey, this has now made Abe less popular in South Korea than Kim Jong-Un.
The ideological break between the Emperor and the nationalist right has been a long time coming. The Showa Emperor, Hirohito, visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo a number of times, but stopped after the ‘heroic spirits’ of 14 Class A war criminals were enshrined there in 1978. Despite ongoing lobbying from right-wing groups, such as the Izokukai, Hirohito never returned to the controversial shrine and his successor Akihito has stayed true to this policy. In 2014, the Fukuoka Izokukai made a bid to move the spirits of the Class A war criminals to a separate location in order to encourage the Emperor to visit the shrine again.
The liberal views of the Emperor have caused problems for the right wing of the LDP for some time but the party has to remain respectful of the Emperor as many nationalist groups consider him to be central to Japanese tradition. This is despite the fact that the Emperor’s own views are often different from those of the nationalist right. For instance, in 2004, LDP politician Kunio Yonenaga, in a bid to express his love for the nation, told the Emperor that it was his job ‘to get all schools in Japan to hoist the national flag and sing the national anthem’. The Emperor’s response was simple — ‘it is not desirable to do so’.
More recently in April 2013, Abe surprised the Emperor at a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the American occupation, when the prime minister — along with many members of the LDP — broke out in the pre-war salutation Tenno heika banzai!(Long live the Emperor!) It is unlikely that Akihito had expected to hear this.
The LDP’s 2012 draft for a revised constitution proposes that the Emperor should be presented not only as the ‘symbol’(shouchou) of the state, but also as the ‘head of state’(genshu). This is a term absent from the current constitution, but it was used in the Constitution of Imperial Japan. While symbolically significant, the change does not alter the de facto political role of the Japanese emperor. It mirrors the ambivalent relationship that many nationalist organisations have with Emperor Akihito. To groups such as the Nippon Kaigi, the symbol of the emperor is central to their nationalist ideology, but since the personal ideals of Akihito himself are contrary to those of the organisation, it is not desirable for them to offer the Emperor a stronger influence over policy-making.
The Emperor, though seemingly critical of the nationalist narrative on Japan’s wartime history, is constitutionally obliged to remain outside of politics. It is therefore ironic that the Emperor, despite his liberal views, still retains his position at the apex of the nationalistic discourse of the Abe government.
Ernils Larsson is a PhD candidate in the History of Religions at the Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University.
Yonenaga Kunio (10 June 1943 – 18 Dec 2012) was not a Japanese politician. He was a shogi master and president of the Japan Shogi Association. He also served on the Metropolitan Tokyo Board of Education.
It was in regards to his service on the Board that he had his famous interchange with the Emperor in the receiving line at the Imperial Garden Party on 28 October 2004:
Yonenaga – “It is my job to make all the middle schools of Japan raise the hinomaru flag and sing the national anthem.”
His Imperial Highness – “You know, it is desirable that it be a thing not done by force.”
Yonenaga – “But of course that is so! Truly I am grateful at the receipt of your wonderful words.”
Reference: http://www.asahi.com/edu/news/TKY200410280332.html
Thank you for your comment. You are of course right in stating that Yonenaga was not an LDP politician. He did however serve on the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education, a board that has been criticized on several occassions for being overtly (right-wing) political with regards to the flag and anthem issue, as well as to the text-book issue. But that does of course not make Yonenaga an LDP politician.
I would also like to correct your translation of Yonenaga’s original comment. where he did refer to “all schools in Japan”, not just to the middle schools. His statement in Japanese was:
“日本中の学校において国旗を掲げ国歌を斉唱させることが、私の仕事でございます”
“The Emperor’s response was simple — ‘it is not desirable to do so.’
“You know, it is desirable that it be a thing not done by force.”
There is a considerable difference between the two translations.
The first one from Mr. Larsson suggests that the Emperor did not support the raising of the Hinomaru or the singing of the Kimigayo.
Mr. Cucek’s, however, suggests that the Emperor wanted people to have the freedom to choose.
So what is the correct translation, Mr. Larrson?
“
To be honest, I don’t think there is that much of a difference between our translations – Professor Cucek did offer the full version of the line, whereas I had to cut it. I have not suggested that the Emperor is against raising the national flag and singing the national anthem, but he has taken a clear position against forcing people to pay respect to these symbols of the state. The hi-no-maru as national flag and the kimi-ga-yo as national anthem are not in themselves that problematic, the conflict today lies between those who wish to make it a duty to pay them respect (a position that was represented in the LDP’s 2012 draft for a new constitution) and those who believe that the citizen should have the right to not do so. The Emperor clearly belongs to the second of these categories.
While this item makes a credible case that Hirohito, Akihito, and Naruhito are carrying a different memory — and more responsible view — of history than Abe Shinzo, Shimomura Hakubun (and Shindo, Takaichi, Hagiuda, and Momii et al.), it also is true that moral authority does not translate easily into government policy.
Hence while the commentariat of a more liberal persuasion are pushing back against the new history textbook guidelines or the content of Abe Shinzo’s Statement they lack the bureaucratic and political levers to prevail, regardless of the views of the Imperial family.
Tradition is important in some respects, but when it gets in the way of creating a desirable future, it’s time to let the past rest in the past.
Thank you for your remarks and understanding of our emperor’s pacifist stance. Emperor Akihito, four years older than myself, seems to have inherited late father’s atonement for Japan’s invasion to our neighbors in the former half of the last century and expresses it on various occasions. I wish he, together with Empress Michiko, can visit Korea and China and convey it directly to Koreans and Chinese in his lifetime. On the other hand, I am shamed of our current PM. Why have our younger generation leaders become such nationalistic? Current LDP leaders are neither liberal nor democratic. Quite a few LDP seniors were pacifists like emperors. I sincerely wish Japan, like your Nordic European states, will become matured to be a liberal and pacifist state with emperors as its symbol.