Penitent Premier

An humble, not to say abject apology was made, last week, by Prime Minister General Baron Giichi Tanaka to the Sublime Emperor, Hirohito, whom Japanese honor as the lineal descendant of the Sun Goddess.

The Prime Minister's fault was that he had kept His Majesty insufficiently informed of certain complex political developments which finally resulted, last week, in the resignation of Minister of Education Dr. Rentaro Mizumo. The affair was so ineptly bungled as to allow it to seem for a time that Emperor Hirohito had desired Dr. Mizumo to continue in office.

So appalling and calamitous was this accidental tarring of the Divine Emperor with an earthy, political brush that last week members of the House of Peers seriously conferred as to whether they should banish from their ranks Penitent Baron Tanaka.