is an imperial
rescriptA rescript is a document that is issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a specific demand made by its addressee...
issued by the
Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
as part of a New Year’s statement on January 1, 1946 at the request of the
Supreme Commander of the Allied PowersSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
. In the rescript, which follows the
Five Charter OathThe was promulgated at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on 7 April 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization...
of 1868, the Emperor denied the concept of his being a living god, which would eventually lead to the promulgation of the
new ConstitutionThe has been the founding legal document of Japan since 1947. The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. Under its terms the Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises a purely...
, under which the Emperor is “the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people.”
The rescript is not officially titled, but apart from its popular name, “Humanity Declaration” or “Ningen-sengen,” it is also known as and .
Delivery of this
rescriptA rescript is a document that is issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a specific demand made by its addressee...
was to be one of Hirohito's last acts as the imperial sovereign.
is an imperial
rescriptA rescript is a document that is issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a specific demand made by its addressee...
issued by the
Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
as part of a New Year’s statement on January 1, 1946 at the request of the
Supreme Commander of the Allied PowersSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
. In the rescript, which follows the
Five Charter OathThe was promulgated at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on 7 April 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization...
of 1868, the Emperor denied the concept of his being a living god, which would eventually lead to the promulgation of the
new ConstitutionThe has been the founding legal document of Japan since 1947. The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. Under its terms the Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises a purely...
, under which the Emperor is “the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people.”
The rescript is not officially titled, but apart from its popular name, “Humanity Declaration” or “Ningen-sengen,” it is also known as and .
The Declaration
Delivery of this
rescriptA rescript is a document that is issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a specific demand made by its addressee...
was to be one of Hirohito's last acts as the imperial sovereign. The Supreme Commander Allied Powers and the Western world in general gave great attention to the following passage towards the end of the rescript:
-
- The ties between Us and Our people have always stood upon mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends and myths. They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world. (official translation)
Interpretation
According to the popular Western view, promoted by the
Supreme Commander of the Allied PowersSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
, this challenged the centuries-old claim that Emperor Shōwa and those before him were descendants of the sun goddess
Amaterasu, or is, in Japanese mythology, a sun goddess and one of the principal Shinto . Her name, Amaterasu, means literally " illuminates Heaven"...
, and thus the Emperor had now publicly admitted that he was not a living
godA deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
. Thus, the same day as the rescript was issued,
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
Douglas MacArthurGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general, United Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II...
announced that he was very much pleased with the Emperor’s statement, which he saw as his commitment to lead his people in the democratization of Japan.
However, the meaning of the exact contents — delivered in stilted, archaic court Japanese — has been the subject of much debate. In particular, instead of the common word
arahitogamiis a Japanese word meaning a kami who is a human being.It first appears in Kojiki, but is assumed to have been used before this book.The best-known usage of this word would be in Japan before the end of the Second World War in 1945...
for "living god", the more unusual phrase was used instead.
While usually glossed as "divinity" in English, some commentators, such as
John W. DowerJohn W . Dower is an American author, professor, and historian; his primary focus is modern Japan and U.S.-Japan relations. He is perhaps best known for his book, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Letters for General Nonfiction, the National Book...
and
Herbert P. BixHerbert P. Bix is the author of Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, an acclaimed account of the Japanese Emperor and the events which shaped modern Japanese imperialism....
, have argued that this means "manifest
kamiis the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. The oldest written record of Japanese creation is in the Kojiki of 712. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity," some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a...
" (or more loosely "incarnation of a god"), and the Emperor could still be an
arahitogami even if he is not an
akitsumikami.
Hirohito was persistent in the idea that the emperor of Japan should be considered a descendant of the gods. In December 1945 he told his vice-grand chamberlain Michio Kinoshita: "It is permissible to say that the idea that the Japanese are descendants of the gods is a false conception; but it is absolutely impermissible to call chimerical the idea that the emperor is a descendant of the gods."
Critics of the Western interpretation, including the Emperor himself, argue that the repudiation of divinity was not the point of the rescript. Since this rescript starts with a full quote from the
Five Charter OathThe was promulgated at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on 7 April 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization...
of 1868 by the Meiji Emperor, the Emperor's true intention was that Japan had already been democratic in the Meiji era and was not democratized by the occupiers. As was clarified at a press interview of August 23, 1977, the Emperor wanted the Japanese people not to forget pride in Japan. This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that the imperial rescript was published with a commentary by Prime minister Shidehara that dwelled exclusively on the prior existence of democracy in the Meiji era and did not make even passing reference to the emperor's "renunciation of divinity".
This rescript is said to have been drafted by
Reginald Horace BlythReginald Horace Blyth was an English author and devotee of Japanese culture.-Early life:Born in Essex, England, the son of a railway clerk, Blyth grew up to be an idealistic young man. In 1916, at the height of World War I, he was imprisoned at Wormwood Scrubs as a conscientious objector and a...
, who also contributed to the popularization of
ZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, translated from the Chinese word Chán. This word is in turn derived from the Sanskrit dhyāna, which means "meditation" ....
and
Haiku' , plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras , in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras respectively. Haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura...
outside
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
External links