Emperor Hirohito (Showa) and Empress Nagako

[mandyy]

New thread for posting news and photos only of Hirohito and Nagako.

 

[mandyy]

Various photos of the two from Corbis

#1: 1925
#2: 1933
#3: Oct 30, 1946.
#4: April 29, 1956.
#5: Dec 26, 1956.
#6: March 6, 1959. Photo taken before Empress Nagako's 56th Birthday
#7-8:March 10, 1961. Photo taken before Empress Nagako's 58th Birthday
#9: March 7, 1963. Photo taken before Empress Nagako's 60th Birthday
#10: Jan 1971

 

[mandyy]

More photos of the two from Corbis
#1: March 19, 1971
#2: Sept 19, 1971.
#3: 1975
#4: Apr 28, 1975.
#5: March 1976
#6: April 28, 1977.
#7-8: Dec 31, 1984.

 

[Warren]

Domestic and Regal

Corbis
The Emperor and Empress at home in 1925, and in State (with a well-known colleague)...
.

 

[kei893265]

Thank you for many photos.
I like Empress Kojun. She was a mild-mannered person like the spring sun.

 

[mandyy]

Old photos of Hirohito and Nagako from Profimedia
#3: May 29, 1973
#4: 1970s on vacation at the Imperial Villa in Nasu
#5-7: State visit to Belgium in September of 1971
#9: Jan. 30, 1974.
#10: Visit to Disneyland on October 8, 1975 (Meeting Aiko's new friend)

 

[mandyy]

More old photos from Profimedia
#1: Empress Nagako riding in a carriage during the coronation ceremony
#2: State visit to Phillippines
#7: At a garden party in the palace

 

[mandyy]

One more from profirmedia

 

[Vanesa]

How beatiful photos, Mandy! I never seen them before you posted them here...I'm very interested in Empress Nagako. Was she from a Japanese noble family or was she a commoner?

Vanesa.

 

[mandyy]

How beatiful photos, Mandy! I never seen them before you posted them here...I'm very interested in Empress Nagako. Was she from a Japanese noble family or was she a commoner?

Vanesa.

Hope the link below helps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Kojun

 

[mandyy]

Emperor Hirohito vexed at Yasukuni's honoring war criminals: report

Japan's late Emperor Hirohito expressed strong displeasure in 1988 over Yasukuni Shrine's inclusion in the late 1970s of Class-A war criminals on the list of people honored there, according to a memorandum by a former Imperial Household Agency official made public Thursday.
But Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday evening that Emperor Hirohito's reported remarks will have no bearing on whether he again visits the Shinto shrine.
The late emperor told former Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita, "That's why I have not visited the shrine since," according to Tomita's memorandum. Informed sources said the emperor was referring to his decision not to visit the shrine since it began honoring 14 Class-A war criminals in 1978......................
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060720/kyodo/d8ivnha00.html

Emperor Showa irked by war criminals at shrine

Emperor Showa stopped visiting Yasukuni Shrine because of his strong displeasure at the enshrinement of 14 Class-A war criminals there in 1978, according to a memo written by a close aide.
Family members of the late Tomohiko Tomita, a former Imperial Household Agency grand steward, kept the memo, dated April 28, 1988.
Emperor Showa, known during his lifetime as Emperor Hirohito, died on Jan. 7, 1989.
Although the emperor visited Yasukuni Shrine eight times after the end of World War II, he never visited the shrine after the Class-A war criminals were memorialized there. His son, Emperor Akihito, has never visited the shrine since ascending the Chrysanthemum Throne...........................
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200607200574.html

Below
#1-4:AP
#5: Reuters
#1: Emperor Hirohito waves to cheering crowd as he makes the annual New Year appearance on the glass-encased balcony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in this photo taken on Jan. 2, 1986.
#2: Japan's former Emperor Hirohito is shown in this April 15, 1988 photo taken at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
#3-4: This part of memorandums taken by then-head of the Imperial Household Agency Tomohiko Tomita in 1988, shown at Japan's financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun, or newspaper, in Tokyo Thursday, July 20, 2006, refers Japan's former Emperor Hirohito stopped visiting a controversial Tokyo shrine because of its 1978 decision to begin honoring convicted war criminals.
#5: A memorandum, written by former Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita in 1988, is seen in Tokyo July 20, 2006.

 

[Vanesa]

Hope the link below helps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Kojun

Sorry for being belated in my answer! Of course the link help me a great deal, Mandyy. Empress Kojun was indeed from nobility roots!

Vanesa.

 

[WordRider]

Various photos of the two from Corbis

#1: 1925
#2: 1933
#3: Oct 30, 1946.
#4: April 29, 1956.
#5: Dec 26, 1956.
#6: March 6, 1959. Photo taken before Empress Nagako's 56th Birthday
#7-8:March 10, 1961. Photo taken before Empress Nagako's 58th Birthday
#9: March 7, 1963. Photo taken before Empress Nagako's 60th Birthday
#10: Jan 1971

Wonderful Pic of The Royals of Japan. My favorite is #2 The Empress looks beautiful.

Terrance

 

[caster51]

Hirohito patrol tour for PPls in 1946~1948

from Chiba to Hiroshima(1947 Dec 7th).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwd-RpuVyn4&mode=related&search=

 

[caster51]

Showa Tenno and A-bomb (unknown episode)

Research of nuclear before WW2
Japan's Atomic Bomb PART 1~5
YouTube - Japan's Atomic Bomb PART 1
it is an american Exaggerated propaganda

Indeed, Japan started to research about nuclear from 1940.

there was already uranium to make A-Bomd in Japan before WW2 by Kodama organs
Yoshio Kodama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the research had been finished in 1944.
then ,Tojo reported it with pleasure to Emperor .
However, The emperor opposed it by contraries.
Tojo doesn't act against emperor's intention at all.

However, a chief of the general staff concealed it and continued developing.
He cannot lead Japan to the defeat as a chief of the general staff. He thought His Majesty should be able to be pleased if Japan won a war.

Tojo dismissed a prime minister in July 1944 by the responsibility of saipan.

after that, The explosion of the rocket that piled up the warhead of the nucleus happened.
it became an accident that His Majesty knew it again.
It becomes impossible to have done the development anymore.
only one thing he never permited was to make an A- bomd.

emperor said" "Man not only dies but also the plant doesn't grow either. Japan need not win a war by using such frightening arms."
then Japan gave up to make them

 

[BeatrixFan]

I somehow doubt that, especially as we know that Hirohito gave permission for chemical weapons to be tested on British and Dutch PoW prisoners. Why would he have reservations about similar effects caused by an A-Bomb and not by smaller chemical weapons?

 

[COUNTESS]

I agree with Beatrix Fan, that Hirohito and Japan acted with barbarity towards its POW's of all nations. They acted with barbarity towards the Chinese. It is a bit like Germany where no one knew, especially Hitler. The Emperor knew all. Sorry.

 

[BeatrixFan]

This is the thing, in Japan, it was Hirohito who approved everything. He didn't only approve, he suggested too - and not only that genocide take place against the Chinese or that chemical weapons be used on PoWs - women and children who had internee status were exposed to extreme cruelty not in his name but because he ordered it to be so. I find it interesting that in the face of all the facts, people could still claim that Hirohito was innocent of it all.

 

[COUNTESS]

Quite right. It is a face saving thing. Responsibility be damned. Hope that word is okay.

 

[caster51]

I somehow doubt that, especially as we know that Hirohito gave permission for chemical weapons to be tested on British and Dutch PoW prisoners

Please link it.

 

[BeatrixFan]

Well firstly, Hirohito gave the order for a chemical weapon attack at Changde. These weapons had been pre-tested on British and Dutch PoWs at Kai Islands and the tests were authorized by the Emperor. I can't link you but you can either search the Australian National Archives or go through the war crimes papers which will show that Hirohito authorized most of the war crimes that took place. For example, the massacres of the Chinese in Singapore. Hirohito was of course, granted immunity from prosecution by the Allies but in reality, he should have probably been hanged along with his Generals because they were following his orders.

 

[susan alicia]

Douglas MacArthur

The americans punished him by humiliating him with this picture with MacArthur. Hanging him would have a wrong effect on the Japanese. It is strange for us to imagine how much he was revered by the Japanese in those days.

 

[BeatrixFan]

Oh I know and I'm sure hanging Hirohito would have led to riots but then who'd just won the war? I can't help but think that dropping those bombs was a display of control and that the Japanese wouldn't have reacted violently to the hanging of the Emperor with that threat hanging over them. I know to many British PoWs the Imperial Family getting off scot free still hurts - the protests when Emperor Akihito visited Britain for a start. Alot of people still feel that the real culprits were never punished.

 

[Kasumi]

Hirohito's cigarette box turns up for sale in Cork - The Irish Times - Sat, Jul 23, 2011
AN unusual gift presented to the wife of an American general by the Emperor of Japan after the second World War has unexpectedly turned up at an auction house in West Cork.

 

[Kasumi]

'Ningen Showa Tenno': new biography of HM the Emperor Showa

Biography of Emperor Hirohito by ex-Kyodo News reporter published - The Mainichi Daily News
[...] Over 1,000 pages long, the two-volume "Ningen Showa Tenno" is based on research and interviews with the emperor and other members of the imperial household by Hiroshi Takahashi, who began reporting on imperial affairs in 1974.
[...]
Takahashi covered imperial affairs from 1974 while working for Kyodo and established himself as an expert in the field. Later he became a professor at Shizuoka University of Welfare and sat on a government panel on imperial issues in 2005 to debate whether a woman should be allowed to ascend the throne.
The book not only chronicles the life of the late emperor and the Showa era in which he reigned through 1989, but also discusses various challenges facing the current imperial family.
One of the key issues now being debated in Japan is whether the law should be changed to allow female members of the royal family to maintain their imperial status after marriage to a commoner. The current Imperial House Law stipulates that female members lose their royal status if they wed outside the imperial family.
Concerns have been raised that the number of royal family members could see a sharp decline in the future since a good number of unmarried royals are women. The issue could jeopardize the imperial succession in the event that there is no male heir to mount the throne.
"It might be Emperor Akihito himself who is most worried (about the matter)," Takahashi says in his book.

 

[Kasumi]

The postcard on the occasion of the Emperor Showa and the Empress Kojun 60th anniversary.

**Pic**

 

[mjkimura1976]

Thank you for all the pictures of the deceased Emperor and Emperoress. One question, though. I've heard that Emperor Hirohito was a fan of Mickey Mouse and had a Mickey Mouse watch. Is that true?

 

[CyrilVladisla]

As a child, Hirohito was given an imperial education at the Gakushuin School, which was also known as the Peers' School.
How many years did he attend school at the Gakushuin School?
​

 

[Chubb Fuddler]

Emperor Showa attended Gakushuin from 1908 to 1914, along with his brother Prince Chichibu. After that he went to a dedicated establishment for the education of the Crown Prince. Prince Chichibu entered the Japanese Imperial Army.

As to the question asked last year by mjkimura1976, the Emperor and Empress's visited Disneyland in 1975, and the Emperor returned to Tokyo the proud owner of a Mickey Mouse watch. When the Emperor died in 1989, the watch is said to have been placed in his tomb. Also included was a ticket from the Paris Metro (or maybe it was the London Tube) from his visit in in 1921. It was the first time he had ever gone on public transport; his first taste of freedom, and the memory stayed with him for the rest of his life.

 

[Chubb Fuddler]

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War next week, the Imperial Household Agency has released a series of photographs of the bunker within the grounds of the Imperial Palace where Emperor Showa broke the deadlock of his military advisors by speaking in favour of surrender. It is also where he recorded his announcement that Japan had surrendered, bringing the war to an end. He spoke in a high-pitched, archaic form of Court Japanese that most people could not understand. After it was broadcast a general had to explain what the Emperor had just said.

Imperial Palace Bunker