United under a Symbol

After the extraordinary disaster beat the country, the Emperor has well been playing his role as a symbol of Japan and unification of Japanese nation. His activity to rend the nations mental stability and security has been broadly accepted especially by the sufferers of the tragedy, while the politics has been lagging behind helping them. Going through the major surgery of heart disease, he is looking forward to doing his job.

He marked one-year period from his surgery to bypassing in coronary artery on Monday. A year ago, the Emperor, then 78, suffered from stricture of artery with wastes in his body. He set a condition of having operation, which was that he could be attending the one-year memorial ceremony of the Great Northeastern Earthquake within one month from his operation. That is an episode showing his eagerness of playing his role in the crisis of the nation.

After that, he aggressively made his visits in and out of Japan. The trips include the United Kingdom and over forty cities in Japan. With moderate rehabilitation, he keeps his usual walking around the house and resumed his favorite tennis. Officers of the Imperial Household Agency emphasize the success of the operation a year ago, and stress his physical and mental good health.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported an interview to a doctor who operated the surgery. Dr. Atsushi Amano told, in the interview, that he convinced in the success of the surgery when the Emperor finished the trip to UK, and proved the strength of his health to be better than that before the surgery. Amano also revealed the Emperor’s willingness to do his job, even against the anxiety of the Empress. That passion seems to have overcame his illness.

In 1960s and 1970s, when anti-conservatism was aggressive, the Emperor of Japan was a target of the argument over responsibility of World War II among young generation. The movement was so closely connected with socialism that it eventually diminished with decline of communist regime represented by the Soviet Union. Current Emperor Akihito succeeded to the throne in 1989, when Soviet Union was ending its history.

While the age of Akihito’s Heisei has been relatively stable, the great earthquake determined Akihito’s character in Japanese history. With his compassionate visit to the sufferers, the Japanese are, more than ever since the end of the war, feeling united under the existence of him. That’s why there were concerted criticisms in Japan against the unilateral request of apology by Korean president. But it also is difficult for him to deal with the relationship with aggressive China. The neighbor countries around Japan, anyway, have to correctly understand how the Japanese are united under His Majesty, even how they are look like politically divided.