New Historical Records Reveal Hirohito Once Wanted to Make a Confession over WWII

New Historical Records Reveal Hirohito Once Wanted to Make a Confession over WWII

Source: United Daily News & China Times & Kyodo News

August 20, 2019

The content of conversations between Japanese Emperor Hirohito (日皇裕仁) and Michiji Tajima (田島道治), the first Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency, after World War II, recorded by Tajima, was released on August 19. The notes showed that the late Emperor Hirohito, who had never publicly expressed regret or remorse for WWII, once wanted to do so in a speech at a ceremony celebrating Japan regaining independence in May 1952. However, owing to objections from then Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (吉田茂), related remarks were removed from the speech before delivery.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the notes also showed that Hirohito privately expressed regret for the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing City on the Mainland in 1937, stating that he was not fully aware of what the army had been doing, but wished he could have stopped it. According to Tajima’s notes, on February 20, 1952, Hirohito said to his assistant, “If speaking of remorse, I have plenty of it.”

Tajima served as the Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency from 1948-53, leaving 18 notebooks, which recorded in detail his conversations with Emperor Hirohito on more than 600 occasions totaling 300 hours. Tajima’s survivors provided these notebooks to Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), which made them public for the first time.

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