Death and state funeral of Hirohito

Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa), the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, died on 7 January 1989 at Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, at the age of 87, after suffering from intestinal cancer for some time. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Akihito. The late emperor's state funeral was held on 24 February, when he was buried near his parents, Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei, at the Musashi Imperial Graveyard in Hachiōji, Tokyo.

Death and state funeral of Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa)
The state funeral procession of Emperor Shōwa
Date
  • 7 January 1989 (1989-01-07), at 6:33 (JST) (death)
  • 24 February 1989 (1989-02-24) (state funeral and interment)
Location
Budget\10 billion
ParticipantsSee list

Illness and death

On 22 September 1987, the Emperor underwent surgery on his pancreas after having digestive problems for several months. The doctors discovered that he had duodenal cancer. The Emperor appeared to be making a full recovery for several months after the surgery. About a year later, however, on 19 September 1988, he collapsed in his palace, and his health worsened over the next several months as he suffered from continuous internal bleeding.

On 7 January 1989, at 7:55 am, the Grand Steward of Japan's Imperial Household Agency, Shōichi Fujimori, officially announced the death of Emperor Shōwa at 6:33 am, and revealed details about his cancer for the first time. He was survived by his wife, five children, ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild.[1]

Succession and posthumous title
NHK aired this card at 7:57 am on 7 January 1989. It simply read "HIS MAJESTY, THE EMPEROR HAS DIED" (Tennō Heika hōgyo).

Emperor Shōwa's death ended the Shōwa era. He was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito. With Emperor Akihito's accession, a new era began: the Heisei era, effective at midnight the day after Emperor Shōwa's death. The new Emperor's formal enthronement ceremony was held in Tokyo on 12 November 1990.

From 7 January until 31 January 1989, the late Emperor's formal appellation was Taikō Tennō (大行天皇, "Departed Emperor"). The late Emperor's definitive posthumous name, Shōwa Tennō (昭和天皇), was officially determined on 13 January and formally released on 31 January by Noboru Takeshita, the Prime Minister.

After the death of Emperor Shōwa, Japan hung a black ribbon above the Japanese Flag as a sign of condolences. This flag is called the "Japanese Mourning Flag".

State funeral

On Friday, 24 February Emperor Shōwa's state funeral was held, and unlike that of his predecessor, although formal it was not conducted in a strictly Shinto manner.[2] It was a funeral carefully designed both as a tribute to the late Emperor and as a showcase for the peaceful, affluent society into which Japan had developed during his reign.[3]

Unlike Emperor Taishō's funeral 62 years earlier, there was no ceremonious parade of officials dressed in military uniforms, and there were far fewer of the Shinto rituals used at that time to glorify the Emperor as a near-deity. These changes were meant to highlight that the Emperor Shōwa's funeral would be the first of an emperor under the postwar democratic Constitution, and the first imperial funeral held in daylight.[3]

The delay of 48 days between his death and the funeral was about the same as that for the previous Emperor, and allowed time for numerous ceremonies leading up to the funeral.[3] The late Emperor's body lay in three coffins; some personal items such as books and stationery were also placed into them.

Ceremony at the Imperial Palace

The ceremonies began at 7:30 a.m. when Emperor Akihito conducted a private Ceremony of Farewell for his father in the Imperial Palace.[2]

Funeral procession through Tokyo

At 9:35 a.m., a black motor hearse carrying the body of Emperor Shōwa left the Imperial Palace for the two-mile-long drive to the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, where the Shinto and state ceremonies were held.[2] The hearse was accompanied by traditional music played on the shō, a Japanese free reed aerophane; the crowd was largely silent as the hearse bearing the Emperor's coffin drove over a stone bridge and out through the Imperial Palace gates. A brass band played a dirge composed for the funeral of Emperor Shōwa's great-grandmother in the late 19th century, and cannon shots were fired in accompaniment.[3]

The motor hearse was accompanied by a procession of 60 cars. The route of the cortege through Tokyo was lined by an estimated 800,000 spectators and 32,000 special police, who had been mobilized to guard against potential terrorist attacks.[2]

The path of the funeral procession passed the National Diet, the democratic core of modern Japan, and the National Stadium, where the emperor opened the 1964 Summer Olympics and heralded Japan's postwar re-emergence.[2]

Ceremonies at Shinjuku Gyoen Garden

The 40-minute procession, accompanied by a brass band, ended when it pulled into the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, until 1949 reserved for the use of the Imperial family and now one of Tokyo's most popular parks.[3]

At the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, the funeral ceremonies for Emperor Shōwa were conducted in a Sojoden, a specially constructed funeral hall. The funeral hall was constructed of Japanese cypress and held together with bamboo nails, in keeping with ancient imperial tradition.[2]

The official guests were seated in two white tents located in front of the funeral hall. Because of the low temperatures, many guests used chemical hand-warmers and wool blankets to keep warm as the three-hour Shinto and state ceremonies progressed.[2]

Palanquin procession

Emperor Shōwa's coffin was transferred into a palanquin made of cypress wood painted with black lacquer. Attendants wearing sokutai and bearing white and yellow banners, shields and signs of the sun and moon, led a 225-member procession as musicians played traditional court music (gagaku). Next came gray-robed attendants carrying two sacred sakaki trees draped with cloth streamers and ceremonial boxes of food and silk cloths to be offered to the spirit of the late Emperor.[3]

In a nine-minute procession, 51 members of the Imperial Household Agency, clad in traditional gray Shinto clothing, carried the 1.5 ton Sokaren (Imperial Palanquin) containing the three-layered coffin of the Emperor Shōwa into the funeral hall, as they walked up the aisle between the white tents with domestic and foreign dignitaries.[2][3]

Behind the coffin walked a chamberlain dressed in white, who carried a platter with a pair of white shoes, as it is traditionally held that the deceased Emperor would wear them to heaven.[2] The new Emperor, Akihito, and the Empress Michiko, carrying their own large umbrellas, followed the palanquin with other family members.[3]

The procession passed through a small wooden torii gate, the Shinto symbol marking the entrance to sacred space, and filed into the Sojoden.[3]

Shinto ceremony

The events in the Sojoden were divided into a religious Sojoden no Gi ceremony, followed by the state Taiso no Rei ceremony.[2]

When the procession entered the funeral hall, the Shinto portion of the funeral began and a black curtain partition was drawn closed. It opened to reveal a centuries-old ceremony. To the accompaniment of chanting, officials approached the altar of the Emperor, holding aloft wooden trays of sea bream, wild birds, kelp, seaweed, mountain potatoes, melons and other delicacies. The foods, as well as silk cloths, were offered to the spirit of the late Emperor.

The chief of ceremony, a childhood classmate and attendant of Emperor Shōwa, then delivered an address, followed by Emperor Akihito.[3]

The funeral continued as the black curtain closed, signalling the end of the Shinto portion of the funeral.[3]

State ceremony

As the curtain parted again, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary opened the state portion of the funeral. At noon, he called for a minute of silence throughout Japan.[3] Prime Minister Takeshita delivered a short eulogy, in which he said that the reign of the late emperor would be remembered for its eventful and tumultuous times, including the Second World War and the eventual reconstruction of Japan.[2] Foreign dignitaries approached the altar one at a time to pay their respects.[3]

Ceremony at the Imperial Graveyard
Emperor Shōwa's tomb in the Musashi Imperial Graveyard, Hachiōji, Tokyo

Following the state ceremony, the Emperor Shōwa's coffin was taken to the Musashi Imperial Graveyard in the Hachiōji district of Tokyo for burial. At Emperor Taishō's funeral in 1927, the trip to the Musashi Imperial Graveyard was carried out as a 3-hour procession, but at the Emperor Shōwa's funeral, the trip was made by motor hearse and cut to 40 minutes.[2] Several hours of ceremonies followed there, until the late emperor was laid to rest at nightfall, the traditional time to bury emperors.[3]

Visitors and guests

Summary

An estimated 200,000 people lined the site of the procession – far fewer than the 860,000 that officials had projected.[3] The Emperor Shōwa's funeral was attended by some 10,000 official guests. A total of 163 countries (out of 166 at that time) and 27 international organizations sent representatives to the event. More than 70 world leaders attended the funeral of the Emperor.

In total, there were 53 heads of state, 15 heads of government, 19 deputy heads of state, 17 members of royal families, 43 foreign ministers and other officials present, all of which required placing Tokyo under an unprecedented blanket of security. Because of security concerns for the dignitaries and because of threats from Japanese left-wing extremists to disrupt the funeral, authorities decided to scrap many of the traditional events that normally accompany funerals for Japanese monarchs. Officials also overrode protocol to give US President George H. W. Bush a front-row seat, even though tradition would have put him toward the back, at the fifty fifth seat,[4] because of his short time in office. Bush, who arrived in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon, attended the funeral on Friday afternoon and departed for China on Saturday.[2]

Japanese officials said it was the biggest funeral in modern Japanese history, and the unprecedented turnout of world leaders was recognition of Japan's emergence as an economic superpower. The Emperor Shōwa was the longest-reigning emperor in Japanese history and the last of the major leaders from World War II. Many also viewed the burial of the emperor as the nation's final break with a militaristic past that plunged much of Asia into war in the 1930s.[2] The late emperor's wife, the Empress Dowager Nagako, did not attend the ceremonies due to a lingering back and leg malady.[2]

The event hold records for the largest gathering of international leaders in world history at that time for a state funeral, surpassed the funeral of Josip Broz Tito in 1980. It would stand for the next 16 years until Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005.

Japanese Imperial Family

Absentees

Foreign dignitaries

The foreign dignitaries who attended the funeral:[5][6]

Members of royal houses

Head of State

Prime Minister/Vice-President

Minister/International Represents of Foreign Affairs

  • Angola Minister of External Relations Pedro de Castro Van Dunen
  • Belgium Minister of External Relations Leo Tindemans
  • Bolivia Deputy Vice-Minister of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mary Carrasco Monje
  • Botswana Minister of External Affairs Gaositwe K.T. Chiepe
  • Brazil Minister of External Relations Roberto de Abreu Sodre
  • Burkina Faso Minister of External Relations Jean Marc Palm
  • Cape Verde Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvino Manuel Da Luz
  • Central African Republic Minister of Foreign Affairs Michel Gbezera-Bria
  • Chile Minister of Foreign Affairs Hernan Felipe Errazuriz
  • China Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China Qian Qichen
  • Colombia Deputy Minister for Foreign Relations Esther Lozano de Ray
  • Comoros Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Trade Said Kafe
  • Costa Rica Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Rodrigo Madrigal Nieto
  • El Salvador Minister of Foreign Affairs Ricardo Acevedo Peralta
  • France Minister of Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas
  • The Gambia Minister of External Affairs Alhaji Omar B. Sey
  • Guinea Minister of Foreign Affairs The Chief of Battalion Jean Traore
  • Hungary Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Gabor Nagy
  • India Minister of External Affairs P.V. Narasimha Rao
  • Iraq Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Wisam Al-Zahawi
  • Italy Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Gilberto Bonalumi
  • Laos Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs Phoune Sipaseuth
  • Laos Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Soubanh Srithirath
  • Luxembourg Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Robert Goebbels
  • Madagascar Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Bemananjara
  • Malaysia Minister of Foreign Affairs Dato' Abu Hassan bin Haji Omar
  • Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Fathulla Jameel
  • Malta Private Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Adrian Camilleri
  • Marshall Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs Torn Kijiner
  • Mauritania Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Mohamed Sidina Ould Sidiya
  • Morocco Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Abdellatif Filali
  • Nigeria Minister of External Affairs Ike Nwachukwu
  • Norway Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorvald Stoltenberg
  • Panama Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Eduardo Ritter
  • Paraguay Minister of External Affairs Luis Maria Argana
  • Republic of the Congo Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Antoine Ndinga-Oba
  • Romania Deputy Director of the Fourth Direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ioan Gorita
  • Saudi Arabia Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdulrahman Mansouri
  • Senegal Minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahima Fall
  • Sierra Leone Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdul Karim Koroma
  • Soviet Union Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Rogachev Igorj Alekseevich
  • United States Secretary of State James A. Baker III
  • Venezuela Minister of Foreign Affairs Enrique Tejera Paris

Ambassador

  • Albania Ambassador Justin Papajorgji
  • Algeria Ambassador Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni
  • Angola Ambassadress and Director of Asia and Oceania Department, Ministry of External Relations Maria de Jesus Haller
  • Bangladesh Ambassador Hedayetul Huq
  • Belgium Ambassador Patrick Nothomb
  • Belize Ambassador Atlay Digby Morales
  • Bhutan Ambassador Dasho Karma Letho
  • Bolivia Ambassador Arnold Hofman-Bang Soleto
  • Brazil Ambassador Carlos Antonio Bettencourt Bueno
  • Brunei Ambassador Pengiran Dato Paduka Haji Idriss
  • Bulgaria wife of Ambassador Peter Bashikarov
  • Burkina Faso Ambassador Hama Arba Diallo
  • Myanmar Ambassador Ba Thwin
  • Cameroon Ambassador Etienne Ntsama
  • Canada Ambassador Barry Connell Steers
  • Chad Ambassador Issa Abbas Ali
  • Chile Ambassador Gustavo Ponce Lerou
  • China Ambassador Yang Zhenya
  • Colombia Ambassador Fidel Duque Ramirez
  • Cuba Ambassador Amadeo Blanco Valdes-Fauly
  • Czechoslovakia Ambassador Rudolf Jakubik
  • Denmark Ambassador William Thune Andersen
  • Djibouti Ambassador Rachad Ahmed Saleh Farah
  • Dominican Republic Ambassador Alfonso Canto Dinzey
  • East Germany Ambassador Manfred Schmidt
  • Ecuador Ambassador Marcelo Avila Orejuela
  • Egypt Ambassador Wahib Fahmy El-Miniawy
  • El Salvador Ambassador Ernesto Arrieta Peralta
  • Ethiopia Ambassador Worku Moges
  • Fiji Ambassador Charles Walker
  • Finland Ambassador Pauli S. Opas
  • France Ambassador Bernard Dorin
  • Ghana Ambassador James Leslie Mayne Amissah
  • Greece Ambassador George Lianis
  • Guinea Ambassador El Hadj Boubacar Barry
  • Honduras Ambassador Anibal Enrique Quinomez Abarca
  • Hungary Ambassador Andras Forgacs
  • Iceland Ambassador Arjun Gobindram Asrani
  • Iran Ambassador Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli
  • Iraq Ambassador Rashid M.S. Al-Rifai
  • Republic of Ireland Ambassador Sean G. Ronan
  • Israel Ambassador Nahum Eshkol
  • Italy Ambassador Bartolomeo Attolico
  • Ivory Coast Ambassador Pierre Nelson Coffi
  • Jordan Ambassador Khaled Madadha
  • Kuwait Ambassador Abdul-Aziz Abdullatif Al-Sharekh
  • Laos Ambassador Souphanthaheuangsi Sisaleumsak
  • Lebanon Ambassador Amir El-Khoury
  • Lesotho Ambassador T.B. Moeketsi
  • Liberia Ambassador Stephen J. Koffa
  • Luxembourg Ambassador Jean-Louis Wolzfeld
  • Madagascar Ambassador Hubert Maxime Rajaobelina
  • Malaysia Ambassador Dato' J.A. Kamil
  • Mali Ambassador Abdoulaye Amadou Sy
  • Malta Ambassador J. Gauci
  • Mauritania Ambassador Taki Ould Sidi
  • Mauritania Ambassador-Director of the Asia and Middle East Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Moctar Ould Haye
  • Mongolia Ambassador Buyantyn. Dashtseren
  • Morocco Ambassador Abdelaziz Benjelloun
  • Mozambique Ambassador Lopes Tembe Ndelana
  • Nepal Ambassador Narayan Prasad Arjal
  • Netherlands Ambassador Herman Ch. Posthumus Meyjes
  • New Zealand Ambassador Rodney James Gates
  • Nicaragua Ambassador Jorge Huezo Castrillo
  • Nigeria Ambassador Mai-Bukar Garba Dogon-Yaro
  • Norway Ambassador Hakon W. Freihow
  • Oman Ambassador Dawood bin Hamdan bin Abdulla Al-Hamdan,
  • Pakistan Ambassador Mansur Ahmad
  • Panama Ambassador Alberto A. Calvo Ponce
  • Papua New Guinea Ambassador Joseph Kaal Nombri
  • Paraguay Ambassador Juan Carlos Hrase Von Bargen
  • Peru Ambassador Luis J. Macchiavello Amoros
  • Philippines Ambassador Ramon V. del Rosario
  • Poland Ambassador Ryszard Frackiewicz
  • Portugal Ambassador Jose Eduardo Mello Gouveia
  • Qatar Ambassador Mohammed Ali Al-Ansari
  • Romania Ambassador Constantin Vlad
  • Rwanda Ambassador Joseph Nizeyimana
  • San Marino Ambassador Manlio Cadelo
  • Saudi Arabia Ambassador Fawzi Bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi
  • Senegal Ambassador Keba Birane Cisse
  • Sierra Leone Ambassador Sheku Badara Basiru Dumbuya
  • Singapore Ambassador Cheng Tong Fatt
  • Somalia Ambassador Hassan Abshir Farah
  • South Korea Ambassador Lee Won-Kyung
  • Soviet Union Ambassador Solovjev Nikolai Nikolaevich
  • Spain Ambassador Camilo Barcia Garcia-Villamil
  • Sri Lanka Ambassador Karunasena Kodituwakku
  • Sudan Ambassador Mohammed Abdel Dayim Basheer
  • Suriname Ambassador to the Netherlands Cyrill Ramkisoor
  • Sweden Ambassador Ove F. Heyman
  • Switzerland Ambassador Roger Bar
  • Tanzania Ambassador Ali Said Mchumo
  • Thailand Ambassador Birabhongse Kasemsri
  • Togo Ambassador Yao Bloua Agbo
  • Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador to India Premchand J. Dass
  • Tunisia Ambassador Abdelhamid Ben Messaouda, Ambassador
  • Turkey Ambassador Umut Arık
  • Uganda Ambassador William Wycliffe Rwetsiba
  • United Arab Emirates Ambassador Hamad Salem Al-Maqami
  • United Kingdom Ambassador John Whitehead and Lady Whitehead
  • Uruguay Ambassador Alfredo Giro Pintos
  • Venezuela Ambassador Fernando Baez-Duarte
  • Vietnam Ambassador Vo Van Sung
  • West Germany Ambassador Hans-Joachim Hallier
  • Yemen Ambassador Mohamed Abdul Koddos Alwazir
  • Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ambassador Tarik Ajanovic
  • Zaire Ambassador Murairi Mitima Kaneno
  • Zambia Ambassador Boniface Salimu Zulu

Representatives

  • Antigua and Barbuda Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Burkina Faso Personal Representative of the President Bukarii Mahamadu Gabriel
  • Cambodia Personal Representative Prince Norodom Ranariddh
  • Cuba Vice-President of Council of Ministers and Minister of Education José Ramón
  • Dominica Represented by the Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Gabon Personal Representative of the President Ali Ben Bongo
  • Grenada Represented by the Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Oman Personal Representative of H.M. the Sultan Sayyid Thuwaini bin Shihab Al-Busaidi
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis Represented by the Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Saint Lucia Represented by the Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Switzerland Personal Secretary for the Federal Councillor Pierre Combernous

Pardons

To mark the funeral, the government pardoned 30,000 people convicted of minor criminal offenses. The pardons also allowed an additional 11 million people to recover such civil rights as the right to vote and run for public office, which they had lost as a punishment for offenses.[2]

Protests

The late emperor's funeral, like the man it honored, was dogged by bitter memories of the past. Many Allied veterans of World War II regarded Emperor Shōwa as a war criminal and called upon their countries to boycott the funeral.[6] Nevertheless, of the 166 foreign states invited to send representatives, all but three accepted.[8] Some Japanese, including a small Christian community, constitutional scholars and opposition politicians, denounced the pomp at the funeral as a return to past exaltation of the emperor and contended that the inclusion of Shinto rites violated Japan's post-war separation of church and state. Some groups, opposed to the Japanese monarchy, also staged small protests.[3]

The Shinto rites, witnessed by official funeral guests and held at the same site as the state-sponsored portion of the funeral, prompted criticism that the Government was violating the constitutional separation of state and religion. This separation is especially important in Japan because Shinto was used as the religious basis for the ultra-nationalism and militaristic expansion of wartime Japan. Some opposition party delegates to the funeral boycotted that part of the ceremony.[3] During the funeral procession in Tokyo, a man stepped into the street as the cortege approached. He was quickly apprehended by police who hustled him away.[2] At 1:55 pm, half an hour before the hearse carrying the late emperor's casket passed by, policemen patrolling the highway leading to the Musashi Imperial Graveyard heard an explosion and found debris scattered along the highway. They quickly cleared away the rubble, and the hearse passed without incident. In total, the police also arrested four people, two for trying to disrupt the procession.[3]

See also

References
  1. "Hirohito's survivors". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  2. Ronald E. Yates, World Leaders Bid Hirohito Farewell, Chicago Tribune, 24 February 1989 (online) Archived 17 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 13 Oct 2015
  3. Susan Chira, With Pomp and on a Global Stage, Japanese Bury Emperor Hirohito, The New York Times, 24 February 1989 (online) Archived 8 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 13 Oct 2015
  4. Attali, Jacques, 1995, Verbatim, Volume 3, Fayard
  5. "Paying Respects: A Global Roll-Call". The New York Times. 24 February 1989. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  6. Slavin, Stewart (20 February 1989). "Attending Hirohito funeral a touchy issue". UPI. United Press International. Archived from the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  7. Meredith, Martin. The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence (Revised and Updated), p. 308.
  8. Schoenberger, Karl (24 February 1989). "World Leaders Pay Respects at Hirohito Rites". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021.
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