HIROHITO HELD IN AWE BY CIA, JAPANESE PUBLIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130109-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 109
• Publication Date: April 27, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130109-0
ARTICLE AUEAR*
DN PAGE
Hirohito Held
In Awe by CIA
Japanese Public
When Emperor Hirohito steps out
on the balcony of his palace in
downtown Tokyo this Sunday to
greet thousands of adoring Japanese
on his 83rd birthday, there'll be a
CIA agent in the crowd-probably
with binoculars.
It's one of the ways the CIA's Life
Sciences Division can observe first-
hand how the diminutive emperor
looks. There have been recent hints
that his health is failing.
Though he holds no direct polit-
ical power, Hirohito has been a fa-
vorite subject of CIA surveillance for
decades. My associate Dale Van
Atta, who was recently in Tokyo, has
had access to some of the secret CIA
profiles of the emperor. They reveal
that the CIA's remorseless analysts,
like the Japanese people, hold this
aged, bespectacled little man in awe.
"Despite all he has been through
since he assumed the throne in
1926," notes the CIA, "Emperor
Hirohito projects innocence and sin-
cerity." The CIA describes him as "a
shy, retiring man." .
He and his 81-year-old empress
like to watch soap operas on TV and
putter in the imperial_gardens. "Both
WASHINGTON POST
27 April 1984
the emperor and empress [enjoy pur-
suing] their personal interests-ma-
rine biology and botany for the em-
peror, art for the empress," states
another profile, this one stamped
"Confidential." In fact, Hirohito is
the world's chief authority on jelly-
fish and related creatures, with 16
books to his credit.
According to the CIA, the emper-
or "is briefed regularly on domestic
and foreign affairs." Yet he "plays no
part in policy decisions." There have
been proposals to make him chief of
state, but "most Japanese would not
like to see him take on any more
than his present symbolic role."
The CIA acknowledges "a few
complaints from younger Japanese"
about Hirohito, but little audible
grumbling about the cost of main-
taining.the imperial household, now
more than $40 million a year.
"By and large," states the CIA,
"most Japanese still view the emper-
or with considerable respect and af-
fection." One reason: He "has trav-
eled widely among the people, some-
thing a Japanese emperor had never
done before."
At first, the Japanese had "grave
doubts about the image the emperor
would project" in the United States.
But his reception during his 1975
visit to this country "greatly ex-
ceeded even the most optimistic Jap-
anese expectations."
The CIA believes the visit contrib-
uted "significantly to popular [Jap-
anese] support for continued doop-
eration with the U.S. [and] openipg
an era of `good feelings' in U.S.Tap-
anese relations."
Characteristically, Hirohito - ~x-
pressed his approval of America rfot
in words but with a gesture. For
years afterward, he wore a Mickey
Mouse watch that he picked up'.?in
Disneyland.
Hirohito is the 124th emperorrin
Japan's unbroken, 2,644-year-ofd
imperial line. When he ascended>>to
the throne in 1926, he -was,.-a
"tenno"-the "emperor of heaven."
The Japanese considered him a F4d-
When the Japanese warlords
sought his approval for the attac~ cur
Pearl Harbor, according to one ac-
count, Hirohito voiced his a
pparent
disapproval by reciting a 31-syllable
poem composed by his grandfather,
extolling universal brotherhood `and
asking: "Why, then, do winds and
water of conflict ... disturb peace
among us?"
The warlords went ahead with
their plans anyway, and older Amer-
icans will remember Hirohito as
villain in propaganda cartoons, with
buck teeth and Coke-bottle eye-
glasses, features that took their place
with Adolf Hitler's mustache and
Hermann Goering's potbelly.
The emperor was able to reverse
this image after the war. Today,
Hirohito remains the only-and per-
haps the unlikeliest-survivor"af
World War II's leaders. :.N ".
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130109-0