Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (7 page)

 

Throughout the first decade of Hirohito's life, Crown Prince Yoshihito lived only a few minutes away, within the same walled compound as the K
son Palace, and had almost daily physical contact with the boys. In his later years Chichibu talked often and freely about his father but not about the emperor Meiji. In Chichibu's uninhibited recollection Meiji's withholding of tenderness stifled any sense of devotion. “Never did I receive the warm, unqualified love that an ordinary grandfather gives to his grandchildren,” he wrote. “So I never had any feeling of adoration for my grandfather…. Nor did I ever hear his voice.”
⁹
Hirohito, for the most part, kept his memories of his father and his feelings toward him to himself, but he would always talk admiringly about his grandfather.
¹⁰
Perhaps he sensed from an early age that emulation of Meiji was expected of him, while emulation of his own father was not.

Emperor Meiji, according to nurse Taka, was extremely
reserved with his grandchildren and seldom saw them except on their birthdays.
¹¹
These meetings usually lasted only two or three minutes and were more like imperial audiences than tender encounters between a grandfather and his grandsons. Meiji, in full military uniform, would stand at his desk and nod his head as the small boys bowed and then immediately exited.
¹²
If he ever showed them affection, it was by sending them toys. One has the impression, therefore, that Hirohito probably related more to the idealized emperor, “Meiji, the Great,” than he did to the real grandfather whom, after all, he never really knew. Given the unusual emotional climate in which Hirohito was reared, ambivalence marked his relationship with his own father but less so with Meiji.

Hirohito was a docile child, fussed over and pampered by nurses and relatives during his kindergarten years. Like other children of his exalted class, he and his brothers grew up enacting in play the Russo-Japanese War.
¹³
As the emperor-to-be, Hirohito—little “Michinomiya”—had to be respected in play and could never be the recipient of anger or ill treatment. Even in make-believe war games, he always had to be the commander in chief, on the winning side. One day Prince Chichibu, according to his own memoir, quarreled with Hirohito over toys, and in anger whacked his older brother with an artillery piece. A horrified servant woman immediately grabbed Chichibu and dragged him off to the prayer room, where she made him apologize before pictures of the sun goddess, Amaterasu
mikami, and of their parents, the crown prince and princess. After admonishing the small prince, she made him swear to the deities never again to strike his brother. Chichibu, however, leaves the impression that he did so quite often.
¹⁴

Between the ages of four and eight, Hirohito and his brothers were frequently taken by carriage to visit sites in the central part of the capital that were repositories of the nation's modern history. Occasionally the military leaders of the Russo-Japanese War and the Meiji oligarchs paid visits to them at the K
son Palace. To
familiarize Hirohito and his brothers with the world of militarism and war, they were taken to watch military parades and to see the museum where captured weapons from the Russo-Japanese War were displayed. They were also taken to the Yokosuka Naval Base, and in August 1906 Hirohito and Chichibu were both given a special tour of the warship
Katori
.
¹⁵

When Hirohito was six years old, in 1907, Marquis It
Hirobumi returned to Tokyo to report on the political situation in Korea, where, as a result of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had gained the opportunity to establish a protectorate. It
had been serving there since December 1905 as the first resident general. In September, Emperor Meiji bestowed upon him the highest hereditary title, “prince.” Just at this time nurse Taka brought Hirohito and his brothers, dressed up in their sailor suits, to the palace to visit their grandfather. Unexpectedly they encountered It
, Yamagata Aritomo, and five other oligarchs from the former feudal domains of Satsuma and Ch
sh
. The
genr
,
or “senior statesmen” as they were now called, had come to the palace to thank the emperor for their gifts. When Hirohito saw them in a waiting room, he stared at It
's medals, causing It
to approach and ask, “Are you the future crown prince?” Unafraid, Hirohito replied that he was. “And who are you?” It
explained who he was and why he was there. To the great delight of all the elderly
genr
, Hirohito questioned him in detail about his many medals as if he were much older than his age and used to having his questions answered.