In the Japanese archipelago, there is no single piece of rubble left in the large cities where the population is concentrated.

There were scorched marks everywhere, and although the dried blood and corpses had been cleaned up, they left a mess that spoke of the brutality of war.

From the old Tokyo to any city with a population of more than 200,000, it is no longer the same as before. The 200,000-ton incendiary bombs have burned half of Japan's territory. More than 10 million people have been killed or injured.

If these tens of millions are placed in India, it may not be nothing, but if it is placed in Japan, it is one-seventh of the population. Even in the European theater, the number of civilian casualties is far from reaching this number.

Many Japanese people in the ruins of Masanori can't help but think of the declaration of war that sounded in the sky over the bustling Tokyo half a year ago.

Half a year ago, the ancient city of Tokyo, surrounded by a wide moat and tall walls, was now inhabited by the gentle Japanese Imperial Family, but it was here that on that sunny December morning in the 43rd year of the twentieth century, an edict about war was issued. The wording of this edict was extremely formal, but it was a terrible sign for the Japanese Empire:

"We, loyal and brave subjects, we present the name of Heaven and the Emperor of Japan, Zegier, and so on, to declare war on the Chinese Empire.

Under the protection of the sacred spirit of our imperial ancestors, and relying on the loyalty and courage of our subjects, the great legacy of our ancestors will surely be carried forward, and we will be able to quickly eradicate all the roots of evil. ”

This declaration of war was broadcast on December 2 at 11:40 a.m. (Tokyo time). This edict was not written by the Japanese Emperor Hirohito himself, but by those who hid behind him. Written by advisers who make policy through his divine authority. However, according to the emperor's own wishes and judgments, he may not have been willing to start a war, and his era name ———Showa meant peace. All of the above shows the meaning of black humor.

The earlier broadcast news (news of the war) shocked the 73 million people of Japan (100 million in the entire Empire), and the edict officially confirmed the authenticity of the news. That morning, a Japanese man who bought a newspaper at Tokyo's Shimbashi Station ——— "After taking three steps, he immediately stopped to read better, then tilted his head and then jerked back." ”

A French journalist reported. They looked up. Immediately put back the mask and became difficult to guess. No word was said to the stall owners, and there was no communication between them. ”

Akira Tozaki is a newspaper editor in Tokyo who is sorting through the ruins. A declaration of war on a few months ago. Still lingering. For the situation where Japan is on the brink of war with the West. He knows better than most. Even so, the declaration of war was published, and the arrival of war took him by surprise. "I thought it was impossible." Akira Tozaki later said, "Because the public was not prepared." ”

Junpei Gomigawa, a researcher at a steel mill who was familiar with the productivity comparison between Japan and China, recalled: "For me, it was like the heavens were shaking." ”

There is every reason to understand this reaction of the Japanese people. At that time, Japan had been mired in a costly war against the Allies for three years, with more than 288,000 people killed in the war, and the country's turbulent economy had dried up badly, and rice and other commodities were forcibly rationed.

Now, with the addition of such a deadly conflict, the gravity of the situation can be imagined. Japan pinned its destiny on Britain and the United States, a force that it had long emulated, envied, adored, and hated.

The war with the West brought a terrible crisis to Japan. Another practical problem that arises is that Japan itself does not have any of the natural resources necessary to wage war. Even if Japan was able to quickly obtain major raw materials by conquering the resource-rich regions of Asia and the Pacific, in the long run, Japan's war production capacity would not be comparable to that of China.

One thing is very clear, and that is that Japan must defeat China once and for all before it can mobilize its arms industry. Therefore, Japan planned to fight a short and quick war. The Japanese army would spread out along the defensive lines, making the Chinese offensive useless, until China lost confidence and withdrew from the war, leaving Japan to form its own newly conquered empire. This stems from the confidence and support given by the Allies, and it is also a ticket to hell.

Earlier in the year, the Emperor, remembering the naval battle with Tsarist Russia, summoned the Imperial Navy's Chief of Military Command (i.e., Naval Commander-in-Chief) Nagano Shusui, and asked, "Do you think you can achieve a great victory?" Just like the Battle of Tsushima back then. Nagano replied, "I'm sorry to answer you, that's impossible. Emperor Hirohito said, "Then it will be a disappointing war." ”

This is certainly possible, but in order to design and embark on their enormous adventures, Japan's leaders are relying on a hidden force. The Emperor's edict has made it clear that for the emperor's subjects, the degree of faith in the edict is the same as the degree of faith in the words that have been handed down directly from the sun goddess ——— Amaterasu.

Edicts not only have the force of secular law, but also have the binding force of heaven. Because of faith from the depths of mythology, the power summoned by the Emperor's declaration of war comes from a profound source, and this power is far more powerful than any hardware coming down the assembly line. This source is the so-called Yamato soul——— which is the Japanese spirit.

Japan's leaders are extremely adamant that their people possess great spiritual power, which, although defined in language is very simple, is greater than any human or material resource. Although, in the end, they were proved wrong, the Japanese spirit was indeed a facilitating and supportive force throughout the war, and its role reached an incredible degree.

The unity of the Japanese in World War II was unparalleled. The desperate seafarers knew they were going to die. The scramble to be the first to fly torpedo boats, and the fact that the young pilots of the kamikaze did not hesitate to crash into enemy planes and die together were the inevitable result of Japan's educational, military, and religious traditions.

For the sake of the country and the emperor, a passionate Japanese can sacrifice everything without saying a word, from high-ranking officials such as Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to civilians on the streets and fields. There are very few dissidents in Japanese politics, and dissent is not only in action but also in speech, but also in terms of dangerous heretical ideas.

Japan's war was a war for the whole people. The Japanese people endured a long period of famine. Women wield pickaxes in the coal mines. Children worked long hours in factories, old people dug pine roots for fuel, and even monks were drafted into military logistics services.

Hundreds of Chinese air raids killed nearly 13 million Japanese civilians, but millions of them were ready to fight to the death against the invading enemy. Although their weapons are only sharpened sticks.

All of this is the embodiment of the "Yamato Soul". This spirit has its roots in the history of Japan. It is in the blood of this country and its people.

In fact, when and where did the Japanese nation come from? It has long been untraceable in the vague legends and fabricated stories. What is certain, however, is that a sustained and growing flow of migrants to Japan began as early as before the Common Era. The migrants consisted mainly of Mongols who traveled down the Korean Peninsula across the strait to the volcanic archipelago at the tip of East Asia.

They settled in the three southernmost islands and gradually merged with their inhabitants, the whole of the archipelago was slightly larger than that of Italy, but none of them was more than 70 miles from the sea, and the immigrants lived among the towering mountains, in verdant valleys and wooded hillsides, where the climate was pleasant, the water was abundant, but the problem was that the mineral resources were scarce.

The Japanese who went to war with the West after the start of World War II were the direct descendants of these primitive tribes. There was hardly any intermingling of their bloodlines, and less than one percent of the Japanese wartime population belonged to other bloodlines. With the same culture and perspectives, geographical isolation, and often political isolation, the Japanese are perhaps the most homogeneous of the world's major ethnic groups.

Although there have been periods of rapid and even drastic change over the centuries in Japan's history, certain circumstances and values have remained the same. Due to the climate and topography (less than 20% of Japan's flat land is available for farming), Japan developed an agricultural system of paddy rice cultivation that lasted from the 2nd century to the 20th century with little change. Tens of thousands of fragmented fields in Japan, each with an average size of 2.5 acres, are farmland farmers working together to share in the benefits of the public irrigation system that waters the rice they depend on.

In this complex sharing relationship, a common view was formed: a concept that transcended the ancient clan or later feudal fiefdoms. This view holds that their fundamental interests must be safeguarded through cooperation and mutual understanding. As Japan developed into the most densely populated country in the world, Japanese people began to gather into groups, live together, play together, run together, and manage the affairs of the group through consensus. Dissent has no role here.

Such a small piece of land has to carry such a heavy burden forever. As a result, the Japanese have a deep sense of gratitude for nature and a special fascination for its beauty, and this respect has gradually developed into a form of polytheistic worship, where natural phenomena are personified and deified.

The sun god is at the center, but there are also countless natural creations that are worshipped as gods in temples throughout Japan. It could be a big tree standing in the wind, or a beautiful flower, or a sparkling stream, or an insect with delicate wings.

This home-grown religion is what people call "Shinto", ——— means the way of God. Its form is pure and simple, and the purpose of Shinto is not to educate morally, but to express reverence for the miracles of nature. In the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, it became the state religion of Japan, and at the same time it was transformed into a tool to be exploited by nationalism, which became increasingly effective as World War II approached.

Since the gods of Shinto all appear in human form. It may be inevitable that some great men will be worshipped like gods. The leadership of a tribal group, believed to have divine blood, held the rule of western Japan in the 6th century.

According to the epic, the male god Iyanagi and the goddess Iyenami gave birth to the Japanese archipelago, and then Iyenagi created the sun goddess Amaterasu and her wild brother——— the storm god Susanoo (i.e., Suzhan Ming) by washing her nose and eyes. Susanoo was jealous of Amaterasu and tortured her mercilessly, hiding in a cave, and the world went dark.

In this way, of course, everyone felt very inconvenienced, and the other gods and goddesses gathered outside the cave. A sacred tree was made. A mirror was hung on the branch——— which later became part of the symbol of the power of the Japanese emperor.

A goddess danced so passionately that Amaterasu couldn't help but peek out of the cave to see what was going on. Seeing her own shadow reflected in the mirror, Amaterasu couldn't help but lean out of her hiding place little by little. As a result, he was pulled out by one of the gods. See. Now the world is back to light.

Susanoo was cast out of heaven because of his evil deeds. So he went to Honshu, the largest island in Japan——— but he offered a handful of treasure Kusanagi to Amaterasu. Subsequently, a hereditary emperor was established to govern the people on behalf of the heavens. Hirohito, who ascended the throne on December 25, 1926, became the 124th emperor of Japan. This can be traced all the way back to Emperor Jimmu along a clear vein.

In early Japan, it was not uncommon to maintain the imperial lineage through fornication, and Emperor Hirohito's father was the son of Emperor Meiji and a court lady. Fundamentally, however, the emperor is probably the closest blood relationship to his ancestors, because he is like the trunk of the towering tree of Japan, and the Japanese people are its side branches. Hirohito was far from convinced of his so-called noble lineage and divine authority, but he was fully aware that the myth of Amaterasu had turned him into the symbolic father of the Japanese nation, for whom the Japanese people would give their lives.

After the lineage of Emperor Jimmu was established, there were times when the emperor's court was relegated to a nominal status. In 645 AD, a family led by Fujiwara Fubi and others seized control of the Japanese government, and Japan entered a period of shadow politics and aristocratic cultural change that lasted almost 400 years.

Throughout this period, the Fujiwara clan ruled Japan strongly, and their rule was always in the name of the emperor, always in the capacity of regent or interior minister, and the power was manipulated from behind. The cunning and shrewd family recognized that it would be helpful for them to retain the emperor, a nominal symbol of hereditary authority. But at the same time, they also realized that if the emperor were to be too involved in the decision-making process, unpopular, unwise and unsuccessful policies would disgrace the emperor, his aura of sanctity would dissipate, and people would see him as an ordinary person who would find him obviously fallaous and stupid. Thus, in the reign of the Fujiwara regime and his successors, the emperor's proper political position was "above the clouds," and the secular affairs of those governments were left to any group that happened to be in power.

The Fujiwara clan developed a well-established system to maintain their power through the emperor. A young girl of the Fujiwara clan would marry a young emperor, and the emperor would often be persuaded to abdicate after having an heir (because being a symbolic monarch was a matter of routine and not free), and the members of the Fujiwara clan always smoothly assumed the role of regent before the young emperor came of age, and then another Fujiwara bride would come to the forefront, another heir would be born, another emperor would abdicate obediently, and another Fujiwara regent would take power. In this way, a never-ending cycle is formed.

With the 450-mile-wide sea separating the Japanese archipelago from China's coastline, there was little interaction between the early Japanese and their highly culturally developed neighbors, but the original Fujiwara rulers had some knowledge of the Tang dynasty, which they sincerely admired. They saw in the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty in China an opportunity to bring backward Japan into the mainstream civilization of the East.

They copied everything from the Tang Dynasty, but at the same time they showed an amazing talent for adapting borrowed ideas and techniques to suit the tastes and needs of the Japanese. And this was learned only later by Western countries after paying a huge price.

Many others traveled to the Tang Dynasty. Scholars, craftsmen, artists and craftsmen, officials, and samurai. As a microcosm of Tang Dynasty fashion, poetry and painting, architecture and gardening, methods and techniques have all been absorbed and transformed to make it more simple and more vernacular. On the basis of alphabetical arrangement, monosyllabic kanji were borrowed to create diacritics, thus transforming into polysyllabic Japanese characters.

The Imperial Parliament, or National Assembly, consisted of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Deputies. Both houses are elected. The members are all from Japan's elite. However. The inner circle of power is extremely reluctant to hand over its power to the Japanese masses and to the elected representatives. The electorate was limited to 6% of the country's population, which was roughly the same as the old samurai class. In the exercise of power, the House of Lords can veto legislative bills proposed by the House of Commons.

However, like everything else. There is also a strange distortion in education in Japan. In an edict issued in 1890. A code of basic morals to be followed by the whole country was published. It achieved the status of a sacred decree that introduced Japan all the way to World War II until the end of the war.

Another "Edict on Education" calls for the people to "unite faithfully and reverently forever." He called on the emperor's subjects to "promote the common good and the common good" and to "respect the Constitution and obey the law." Then there is a strong exhortation to the people to shoulder their duty and fight hard even in conflicts where there is no hope of victory. The edict said: "No matter what unexpected happens, we must bravely contribute ourselves to the country, so as to protect and maintain the prosperity of our imperial power, so that it can coexist with heaven and earth." ”

In most other countries, such edicts are merely a routine proclamation and are quickly forgotten. In Japan, however, the recitation of the Edict of Education has become a religious ritual for schools across the country. Anyone who touches a scroll of paper with these sacred words written on it is required to wear white gloves. Some principals accidentally dropped the edict on the ground, or made a mistake in reading it, and they would resort to suicide to apologize. Such examples do exist. In the event of a fire, nothing can be rescued, and the first thing to be rescued is the edict, not to mention this situation.

The entire school curriculum was designed to foster a strong sense of patriotism, which in turn focused on the emperor. Ethics lessons are included in the curriculum. Ancient Shinto, which revered the miracles of nature, retreated, while the warlike modern Shintoism, with the Japanese state and emperor taking precedence, took precedence in the moral lessons. In the rules established by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture, the goal of history education is to "enable children to understand the basic characteristics of the empire and to cultivate their national spirit." Similarly, the purpose of geography education is "to instill in them a love for the country".

Generations of Japanese elementary and junior high school students have adhered to the routine of "long-distance worship" and bowed for 60 seconds in the direction of the Imperial Palace every morning. The children were also taught that during the assembly, if the emperor occasionally came, they had to bow their heads and look to the ground as a sign of reverence for him. Moreover, every day, the teachers ask the male students, "What is your greatest ambition?" ”

The children would reply in unison in childish voices, "Die for the emperor!"

When the time comes, millions of them will fulfill that promise.

5 a.m. on March 12, 16th year of ZTE.

In the original Imperial Palace of Japan, there is an underground air-raid room called the Gobunko that was dedicated to the Emperor and Empress Showa (Hirohito). The Imperial Library is built in a dense grove of trees, surrounded by pre-dawn darkness. Three months after the Chinese bombing of Japan, the work of correcting the Imperial Palace has been completed, but Japan is no longer in the mood to build a new Imperial Palace.

In front of the original gate of the Imperial Library, which has become a ruin, a brown Mercedes-Benz sedan is parked. In the cold wind, you can vaguely see the gas leaking from the exhaust pipe of the car.

The temporary iron gate of the Imperial Library opened, and the tall Chamberlain Fujita Shotoku in a subservient robe walked out.

The light from the room emitted by the flashlight in the guard's hand could only reach the people's feet. Because a warning siren had been raised from 4:50 a.m., which was a prelude to an air raid siren, the torch was covered with a cloth.

Under the guidance of his attendants, the emperor appeared. He was dressed in army uniform. Wearing a generalissimo badge full of gold stars and a chrysanthemum. On the chest, he wears an abbreviated medal of the Grand Order of the Chrysanthemum of the Rising Sun on a green, yellow, red, and white ground. It's just that this emperor can only be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, because his feet have disappeared.

As soon as the emperor and the chief hurriedly got into the car, the flashlight went out.

The attendants, attendants, military attachés, and other attendants followed closely behind, passing through the general gate that blew into the Imperial Garden, and headed right.

In the vicinity of Fukigami Imperial Garden, there are three halls in the palace. At this moment, the emperor was preparing to go to the Ayagiden in the palace after bathing in the bath of the Imperial Bunko. Take off your military uniform. Put on a sash of clothes and belts that were prescribed in the Heian period. The Heian period refers to the period between the relocation of the capital to Heian in 794 AD to the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, about 400 years, and the center of power was in Heiankyo, which is today's Kyoto.

After the emperor's crown is tied. It is necessary to go to the vestibule of the shrine to perform the first sacrifice of the new year - the four directions of worship. Every year on New Year's Day. The emperor himself bowed before dawn. Pray to the gods and the earth, and to the four directions of heaven and earth. There is also a New Year's Day festival to rent sacrifices to the gods.

The car drove through the universal gate and had just walked a few hundred meters. Suddenly, from all around the palace, intermittent air raid sirens sounded like tearing through the night sky.

The chief attendant sat opposite the emperor in the back seat of the royal car. The 42-year-old emperor remained silent in the car, as if he was concentrating on something. The attendant, Fujita, immediately pressed the electric button to instruct the driver to return.

"There's an air raid, let's go back to the Imperial Library!" Fujita said to the emperor.

"Hmmm! Good! Hirohito couldn't help but nod in his heart.

The sky was pitch black, with no moon or stars to be seen, except for three or four searchlight beams, illuminating a few clouds in a few places.

The car turned at the entrance to the garden across the main street across the Gyoen Garden.

The car travels eastward on a dark forest path. At this time, the clouds in the northeast corner were faintly visible and had been dyed red.

When he returned to the Imperial Library, the Emperor remained silent.

Entering the Imperial Library, the Emperor was guided by his attendants and walked up the stairs on the left to the second basement floor. Gobunko is a bungalow building with a three-meter-thick cement roof. This is the Emperor's air-raid room, which can be used to protect against any large bombs. As soon as the air raid sirens were encountered, the emperor and empress immediately took refuge in the air-raid room on the second basement floor.

This is also called a refuge. The queen had arrived first.

As soon as the emperor came in, the army attaché on duty followed up with the latest air defense information from the Eastern Military District. Every time there was information about an air raid, the military attache had to report it to the emperor.

The shelter has 12 tatami sized rooms, and next to them is a small dormitory. There are two sofas for the Emperor and Empress and a writing desk. The lower half of the wall is a slab wall, and the upper half is a cement wall painted with gray paint.

There is an iron blackboard in the corner, and the military attache moves the red and blue models of the airplane on a map with 1/300,000 of them pasted on it, while reporting to the emperor on the air raids and the situation of the warring parties. The model wing is about 3 cm wide and is magnetically fixed to the figure.

The military attache reported to the Emperor the information from the Eastern Military District: "At 5:02, an enemy bomber invaded the Kanto region; At 5:05, the enemy showed signs of eastward advance, and the Keihin area needed to be strengthened; At 5:08 a.m., enemy planes flew from the northwest toward the Keihin area. After a while, the Emperor called the chief attendant Fujita. On the second basement floor, there is a small lounge for attendants, military attachés and guards.

Fujita entered the living room. Emperor Yu was worried that it was almost dawn.

The only white chandelier hanging from the ceiling glowed yellow, dark and yellow. Fujita said that the air raids were not over yet, and there was a great danger outside. But the emperor repeatedly said, "It will soon be dawn." "Both the Four Directions Prayer and the New Year's Day Sacrifice that follows must be done before dawn. This is too important for the emperor, who is the chief priest of the imperial family.

5:15 a.m.

Three Djinns flew into Tokyo and dropped incendiary bombs, and the Edogawa River caught fire.

Yesterday, from 9 p.m., the Zhonghua Air Raid conducted three air raids, but because they flew too high, the antiaircraft guns did not fire a single shot, and the aviation units did not meet them. At that time, Japan did not have a single anti-aircraft gun that could reach it, and the fighters could barely fly 10,000 meters, but they could not fight effectively.

At 5:20 a.m., China was late from the skies over Tokyo to the southeast sea.

The air raid sirens have not been lifted.

In front of the three halls of the palace, the guards and the palms carried two screens, straw mats and straw mats with gold trim to the stone path of the White River. Start by attaching some straw mats and a screen to the rear seat of the car. The screen was exposed outside the car, and the doors could not be closed. A guard stood on the front ladder and held it with his right hand.

Moving the four-sided worship that was originally carried out in the three halls of the palace to the front of the air defense room is completely unconventional.

When the car arrived at the main garden, the searchlights flickering in the air suddenly disappeared, and a noisy siren sounded around to lift the air raid siren.

The car came to the general gate of the Blowing Age Gyoen. At this time, the special intelligence squad of the headquarters of the 10th Air Force Division, which was stationed in the building of the First Life Company in the middle of the palace and the square in front of the palace, heard a clear telegram from the giant spirit god who had just retreated. The radioman copied it onto paper, and the officer copied it onto the report paper.

0525 Enemy Aircraft Communicate in Clear Code: We'll be back.

In the Imperial Garden, the guards set up straw mats on the lawn in front of the Imperial Library. Garden grass is also called Kasumi grass, which is a mat woven from swamp grass. According to the regulations, four sheets were arranged in two rows, and a straw mat with gold rim was placed on the top, which was placed diagonally from northeast to southwest.

This is in between. An attendant stepped out of the Imperial Library. Inform the Emperor that he is about to depart. However, the three-foot-square tatami and another screen that the emperor used to sit on a straw mat trimmed with gold have not yet arrived.

So, he put up a screen that had been brought in first and erected it around a straw mat with gold trim. There are six screens, although they are not small. But it's still narrow. The screen faces Ise Jingu in the southwest. Splay about 30 cm.

Traditionally, the screens are lined up along the sides of the gilded straw mats. In order to be able to go in the direction of the Imperial Shrine, where Amaterasu is enshrined, and to facilitate the emperor's entry and exit. An opening was left in the northeast. Several bonfires were lit around. Then the emperor, dressed in a loess-colored robe and wearing a black crown, entered the screen, along with his attendants. During the Emperor's Worship. The attendants remained on their knees at all times. On both sides of the southwest entrance, there is one person in each of the palms; On either side of the northeast entrance, there were attendants who bowed their heads until the end of the service.

It was past 5 o'clock, and the temperature dropped below freezing.

At 5:40 a.m., the Emperor, guided by his attendants, came outside from the dimly lit Imperial Bunko.

The emperor is still wearing a military uniform. Fujita's chief attendant, Hasunuma Attendant Chief, Attendant Chief, Attendant, Military Attache and other retainers followed. Needless to say, unlike usual, from the Ayagiden to the south garden of the Shinkaden, there was neither a torch to light the way for the emperor, nor a bonfire.

The Quartet worshipped, but fortunately did not encounter an air raid.

The Emperor returned to the Imperial Bunko.

In previous years, after the emperor had bowed to the four directions, he would immediately return to the shrine, one of the three halls of the palace, where the New Year's Day festival was held. Kensho is a place where Amaterasu's Okami, one of the three kinds of artifacts, is enshrined. But this is more than the ninth century. Unlike the four worship held by Emperor Daigo, the New Year's Day festival was stipulated by the Meiji government in the imperial festival decree after the Meiji Restoration of 1867~1868. Since then, it has been done in person, except for the absence of the emperor's illness.

This time, for fear of air raids, it was decided that the emperor would not go, and from 5:42 a.m., he sent an attendant to pay homage to Duke Minoru of Tokudaiji Temple.

At 8:15 a.m., the Emperor came to the Imperial Library dining room and held a ceremony to celebrate the Imperial Meal. On the table, there are red lacquered tableware, such as grilled fish skewers, salted radish, shrimp, boiled chestnuts, soup, water chestnut, pheasant wine, fruits, tea, etc. Lingbao is a unique traditional food in the palace, and it is topped with fine burdock and white bean paste on white cakes and water chestnut cakes. The Harugo Meal is a ritual that has been passed down since ancient times, and the emperor simply uses silver chopsticks to hold it up. The emperor walked out, and the ceremony ended.

After the Qing Imperial Meal, the Queen came. First, visit the special assault team, or the Air Force death squad's meal before they fought to the death: red kaji fish, azuki bean rice, vegetables in a box, and Ichiai (one-tenth of a liter) sake in a glass bottle. The Emperor and Empress looked at it with great interest and gave it to the military attaché's chamber. After that, the emperor and empress had breakfast consisting of swordfish, soup, stewed vegetables, pickled vegetables, and rice. The taste of swordfish is beautiful.

It was not yet half past nine o'clock, when the emperor's younger brothers, Prince Nobuhito Takamatsunomiya and Princess Kikuko, the third prince of Emperor Taisho, came to the Imperial Library to celebrate the New Year. Also here was Prince Takahito Mikasanomiya, the fourth prince of Emperor Taisho. Prince Yonghito, the second son of Emperor Taisho Tsuiko, did not come, because Chichibu Palace was "enjoying happiness" in the Zhonghua Heavenly Prison at this time.

Takamatsunomiya was dressed in a navy uniform and wore a short sword. Mikasa wore the uniform of the army commander. The three of them came to the hall to wait, and at 9:30 the emperor and empress arrived and stood in front of the golden screen.

The emperor wore the generalissimo's army uniform, a red tassel saber, and slippers on his feet. An abbreviated chapter of the Chrysanthemum Medal of the Great Order on his chest.

First of all, Takamatsunomiya gave an official congratulatory speech. Then, Mikasa, who turned 30 a month ago, also gave a congratulatory speech in a somewhat excited tone.

Hirohito nodded deeply, his face a little sad.

Takamatsunomiya wrote to the emperor in January '44 after China's all-out air raids against Japan began to turn into routine bombing. The letters were written on stationery and pen and were very short. The content said that the main forces of the navy were unable to fight a decisive battle, and there was no hope of victory in the war, so it was determined to end the war as soon as possible. The recipient writes "Brother Palace". From the beginning of the war, Takamatsunomiya believed that the war against China was a mistake and that it should be ended as soon as possible.

Takamatsunomiya thought that the emperor was determined to end the war at this time.

However, the two brothers only meet a few times a year. According to the unwritten rules, there should be no talk about the war situation and politics, because the royal family is not allowed to interfere in politics.

It's just that Hirohito, who is in a wheelchair, has a lot of words this year, and he is tied to a chariot, and it is already a very sad joke that he is not allowed to interfere in politics.

"I have read the letter from my brother's palace, and the war has reached such a point that I cannot make a choice. Because it's no longer a matter for me alone, it's a matter for the whole of Greater Japan. Hirohito said it very tactfully, and it was the first time in the history of the emperor that he had said such a thing on such an occasion. In fact, Hirohito's stomach is full of grievances, and there is no place to sue.

"Emperor, your brother's palace reminds me of the career of our three brothers in the military academy. At that time, there were three brothers, and only the emperor was the strictest with himself, and your personality still did not change at all. "Takamatsunomiya Road.

Hirohito couldn't help but touch his legs, his face showed a slight chill, and he thought about it: "No, I've changed, I've changed a lot." ”

Sensing Hirohito's movements, Takamatsunomiya consciously did not answer, and ate quietly, but for him now, the food in his mouth is like chewing wax.

When it came to Hirohito, he kept shouting something in his heart, and kept recalling the scene of the bombing day in his mind. Gradually, the picture in his mind began to change, and the bombing was still the same, but he changed the imaginary location to Hanjing, and his own experience, the protagonist was replaced by the biggest grudge in his heart, the Zhongxing Emperor of China.

Perhaps, after this incident, we will consider whether to end the war!! (To be continued......)