2006-09-16 18:11:04 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
They do?! Where can I verify this?
2006-09-16 18:17:53 · update #1
The A bomb had nothing to do with it. The Japanese still believe that their emperor is Godlike
2006-09-16 18:16:59 · answer #1 · answered by wunderkind 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The US demanded complete surendor of Japan and an end to the emperor. So the nukes where used. Now guess what, when McAurthur signed the peace agreement with Japan and became in charge of military control in Japan, he kept the emperor in place.
2006-09-16 22:16:33 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do not know what the Japanese believe about the Emperor. The Japanese people have demonstrated the change after the end of WW II and have joined the free enterprise system as well as the Western Nation. That should tell us that change is possible, for the good of the country and the people
2006-09-24 03:41:44 · answer #3 · answered by pooterilgatto 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm Japanese-born and raised. I've read the idiot answers posted so far and am throughly disgusted by the lack of scholarship. Those of you pulling answers out of the trashbin you call personal knowledge should be ashamed of yourselves.
This isn't even a military question, for crying out loud.
The Emperor's status is derived along the same lines as Pharaonic or other ancient monarchies of Central America or the Near East - namely, divine descent, and status as an emissary of the divine. The primary religion in Japan is Shinto, an animist religion that has more in common with ancient mythologies than any of the monotheist faiths current today (Buddhism is a latecomer introduced for its values of literacy and artistic merits).
The Emperor of Japan has been for centuries more of a high priest than a ruler, especially through the various Shogunates and the Warring States period. It is only during the Meiji Restoration of the 19th century that in emulation of European absolute monarchs (in the manner of Louis "I am the State" XIV) that the Emperor's position was reevaluated. His divinity was expanded into the national education curriculum and throughout government and society by that grotesque manipulation of his stature called State Shinto, which combined elements of fascist "master race" theory with cult worship.
The atomics accelerated Japan's inevitable surrender, but have absolutely nothing to do with the Emperor's status as divine or no. That was left upto General Douglas MacArthur, whose task was the reconstruction of Japan. The Emperor was remade into a constitutional monarch instead of a divine one, State Shinto was abolished, and on January 1, 1946, he declared himself officially to be NOT a "living god" as understood during the war years to be the mortal yet divine incarnation of the line of the Sun Goddess.
The term "kami" (god, or spirit) in Japanese is very different from the Western notion, as the Japanese do not believe in an omnipotent and omniscient supreme being or "overpower" if you will that dominates over all creation. Shinto, being an animist religion based on natural phenomena, emphasizes being PART of nature. Those deceased become part of nature and thus become "kami" in this religion, becoming part of an unbroken line of descent to the beginning of creation.
Shinto is still the dominant religion in Japan, and the Emperor's status as emissary between the divine and the mortal is retained - and restored to its pre-State Shinto days, when his mortality was not the issue. The atomics had nothing to do with this "restoration" if you will. It was General MacArthur that changed all that.
2006-09-22 10:38:49 · answer #4 · answered by Nat 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, the people believed that they are sovereign no longer the emperor. The emperor is like anyone else, a human and mortal and subject to death and illness. In fact, many questioned the now emperor Akihito for his personality and inability to get a good wife. Well, he resolved it by getting his first lady but proves that they are now making controversy of the royal family
2006-09-16 18:36:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
View the movie " The Last Emperor" Good movie.
The Emperor is now a symbol and not viewed as a God anymore. And he does not have complete control !
2006-09-22 15:15:44 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A lot of Japanese still do believe that their emperor is god
2006-09-16 18:13:08 · answer #7 · answered by Sydney 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You mean today the Japanese believe the A-Bomb is God?
2006-09-16 18:19:05 · answer #8 · answered by Dip Shït 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
One of the conditions of surrender after two bombs was that we allowed them to keep their emperor. You tell me how strong their beliefs are?
2006-09-16 18:19:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
ya they think the A-bomb was from god itself
2006-09-16 18:19:17 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋