Episode 188 - Lifting the Lost, Part 6

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2017

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we talk about what it took to make a peace on paper a peace in fact. With millions of Japanese civilians and soldiers scattered across Asia, what would it take to get them all home again?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, Episode 188, Lifting the Lost, Part 6.
0:23.4	On August 16, 1945, the day after Japan's surrender was announced to the public,
0:30.8	Emperor Hirohito called a conference in his personal residence on the grounds of the Imperial Palace,
0:36.6	a temporary residence, in fact, as his
0:39.4	primary one had been accidentally damaged by a wayward bomb. Invited to that conference were four
0:46.4	men, Takeda no Mia Tuneyoshi, Asaka No Mia Yasuhiko, Higashkuni no Mia Narhiko, and Kanin Nomia Haru Hito.
0:56.5	The nomia behind each of their names indicated princely status.
1:01.5	All four men were relatives of the emperor and heads of the imperial collateral houses,
1:07.7	responsible for providing an emperor if no one from the main line was up for the job,
1:13.0	and for advising whoever did end up getting the top job.
1:17.9	These were the people that, from what I can tell at least,
1:21.4	Emperor Hirohito trusted the most, his own family,
1:25.0	who shared his priority of protecting the imperial institution and Japan,
1:30.2	which in Hirohito's mind were one and the same thing.
1:34.5	If you're curious, both Prince Higashkuni and Prince Asaka were the emperor's uncles-in-law,
1:40.7	in addition to coming from more distant groups of imperial relatives,
1:44.9	Prince Takeda was the emperor's first cousin, and Prince Kahnin was a more distant cousin.
1:51.7	Now they would be given one of the most important jobs in the empire,
1:56.0	ensuring that the military, as well as the general population, complied with the emperor's will and surrendered.
2:03.5	Each would be called on to use their fame as a member of the imperial clan,
2:08.1	and to use their position as the emperor's direct messengers, to convince all to lay down their weapons.
2:15.9	Specifically, Prince Higashi-Kuni would take over his prime minister until the Americans came to
	...

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