Auspicious Birth

Last August a great sea turtle emerged upon the beach at Kamakura, famed site of the imperial villa of the Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan. Out rushed the imperial household, agog at this omen of good luck. When the turtle, having laid exactly 70 eggs, retired into the sea, it was bruited throughout Japan that the Crown Princess Nagako would be certain to give birth to a male heir. Then a pair of sacred cranes nested in a great pine tree almost at the imperial threshold, and this omen was thought to be so certain of fulfillment that the Japanese newspapers commenced to refer to the expected child as "him."

Last week the famed obstetrician, Professor Nobuhige Kuriyama, waited hourly upon the Crown Princess; final preparations were made for an immense fete.

Then there came into the world the 124th descendant in direct line of the Emperor Jimmu Tenno (660 B. C.), founder of the oldest reigning dynasty*the world. Unfortunately the infant thus auspiciously born proved to be a girl Some 70 million disappointed Japanese were comforted by an announcement: "The Princess Nagako continues in robust health, and will personally nurse the granddaughter of the Emperor."

*"Revived" in 1868 when the Shoguns, who had ruled as de, facto sovereigns since the 12th Century, were overthrown by the descendants of Jimmu, who comprise the present dynasty. The Constitution of Japan declares (Chapter I, Article D : "The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal."