HIROHITO: Some Thoughts about the 124th Emperor of Japan

	Whose hero was Hirohito Hironomiya?
	Was he worth dying for?
	Was he a puppet propped up by imperialists –
	or point of a holy sword?

	Once
	God to sixty million
	in dashing uniform
	surrounded by tanks
	Mitsubishi fighters
	and gold chrysanthemums

	Now
	a tiny pot of ash
	in an oversized grave

	that little Mickey Mouse lover
	conquered half the world
	for nearly a thousand days


Bhäraté:   Well, Hirohito was not my hero.

Daiki:     Most people will probably never know the actual man behind the symbol.

Chariya:   It's meaningless to discuss the Japanese emperor without also considering the 
           broader historical context. Shortly after his birth, some type of collision 
           between Japan and the West seemed inevitable.

An-Yi:     That sounds like a glib endorsement of the atrocities perpetuated under Hirohito's name.

Bhäraté:   Fascism and colonialism have certainly caused unspeakable misery. The only 
           point I would make is that we should not feel self-righteous: every 
           civilization is guilty of misdeeds.

Chariya:   Yeah. Too many people point their fingers at others for sins which – at some 
           point in time – they have committed themselves.

Daiki:     On hindsight, Hirohito seems to have many of the contradictions inherent in 
           all humans. At various times in his life, he was a militarist, politician, 
           marine biologist, and a retiring old man. Was he not a mosaic?


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from _Pan-Asian Pulses: Poetry, Art, and Dialogs about Asia_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY: A conversation, poem, and digital image about the 124th Emperor of Japan.
KEYWORDS: Hirohito Hironomiya, Emperor Hirohito, Heika, Showa poetry, 124th Emperor, 
          Showa Emperor

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 1996 in Shizuoka, Japan ≜ Finished: 2016 in Tokyo, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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TRANSLATIONS 

French:   http://www.tnewfields.info/fr/hiro.htm 
German:   http://www.tnewfields.info/de/hiroh.htm 
Japanese: http://www.tnewfields.info/jp/hirohito.htm 
Spanish:  http://www.tnewfields.info/es/hir.htm