Japan with an Emperor, or a King?
While the people of Japan have the right to choose the constitutional monarchy as their system of government, whether that monarch is an emperor or a king is another matter.
An emperor is the monarch of an empire, and the monarch without an empire is at best a king, not an emperor.
For several decades before the end of the Second World War, the Empire of Japan had committed unprecedented atrocities and crimes against humanity, including the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, the Rape of Nanjing, and the brutalities against the sex slaves, and caused the destruction of tens of millions of innocent lives and the ransacking of many countries. In August 1945, the Empire of Japan was soundly defeated and unconditionally surrendered, marking the end of the Second World War.
For all purposes, the Empire of Japan was completely defeated and its reinstatement or resurrection shall never be allowed. The victory legacies of the Second World War shall be safeguarded and shall never be allowed to be tampered with. The peace-loving people and nations throughout the world shall never tolerate and allow the rearmament and remilitarization of Japan.
While the American military occupiers of Japan, for practical considerations, did not pursue war crime charges against Emperor Hirohito in the years after the unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan, and thus helped maintain the monarchy system in Japan in the post-WWII years, Japan is no longer an empire, and calling the monarch of Japan an Emperor is a misnomer and is inconsistent with the political realities of the world today.
As a consitutional monarchy, Japan is strictly speaking a kingdom at best, not an empire, and thus Japan’s monarch is a king at best, not an emperor. Let the world call a king a king, and not be confused by a king being called an emperor, since the Empire of Japan has been consigned to the dustbin of history for good. This will help better safeguard the victory legacies of the Second World War, and make today’s world a safer and more peaceful place for all mankind.
The opinions expressed here are the author's own. Victor Z. Gao is the director of China National Association of International Studies. He can be reached at [email protected].
