JAPANESE EMPEROR-WORSHIP
Sta,—Mr. Russell Greenwood's article on Japan is certainly timely and- of great interest. I feel that those who have attempted to study the Japanese mind since the surrender will in general agree with his judge- ments. But I do not think that he has paid enough attention to the Japanese attitude to the Emperor, contenting himself with saying that "on a national scale Shintoism has thus been found lacking, though in the family it remains the medium for showing respect to ancestors." My own experience would indicate that the majority of the Japanese have an undiminished reverence for the Emperor, and I feel that his recent provincial tours have won him a new respect, not as a constitu- tional monarch, but as a divine figure deigning to mingle with his people. There is, it is true, a small but prominent minority among the Communists who have attacked the Emperor's position. But their influence is not great, and their attacks have lost much of the virulence of the early days of the Occupation. The few liberal-minded Japanese I met considered that the Emperor would never be regarded as a con- stitutional monarch by the people, but would continue, at any rate in their hearts, to be surrounded with a religious aura. His retention has been regarded by many Japanese and foreign observers as a measure in the interests of stability, but not of long-term democratic reconstruc-
Previous page
