Task and Taskmaster

Five hours after Emperor Hirohito broadcast to the nation, the Suzuki Cabinet resigned. "The new situation," said the aged departing Premier, "requires new men with fresh ideas."

The Emperor summoned his kinsman, pug-chinned Prince Naruhiko Higashi-Kuni, 57, to form a new Government. The appointment was doubly notable: it was made without the customary consultation between throne and elder statesmen; it was the first time ever that a member of the royal house had become Premier of Japan.

The Leader. The new Premier had scant background in politics or statesmanship. But his royal presence at the head of the Government could be a safeguard for the Imperial institution, and it might allay popular unrest. In the Japanese mind the Prince's relationship to the Emperor is threefold. He is Hirohito's cousin, because he is the grandson of a brother of one of Hirohito's great-grandfathers. He is Hirohito's uncle, because he is married to the sister of Hirohito's father (Emperor Taisho). He is Hirohito's inlaw, because his son is the husband of Hirohito's daughter (Princess Teru).

Equally important is the Prince's standing as a professional soldier (a rough, tough cavalryman). This might be handy in persuading diehard front commanders to lay down their arms.

Higashi-Kuni went through Tokyo's Military Academy. In the early '20s he served as military attache in Paris, where he studied French tactics, acquired a taste for French cooking and a French mistress (rumor said she bore him four children and kept him abroad until His Majesty's Government threatened to cut off his funds). Back in Tokyo, he lived fast. He gambled--not for money but for whiskey (i.e., he paid off by taking two drinks every time he lost). He patronized geisha houses. He liked to drive at top speed in his maroon Lincoln.

In 1939 the Government needed a heavyhanded, blue-blooded officer to rope in some of its maverick commanders in China. It chose Prince Higashi-Kuni. He dressed down his notorious relative, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, who stood by at the rape of Nanking and subsequently at the "Death March" from Bataan. In 1941, Higashi-Kuni was put in charge of the important home defense command. In that post he is said to have threatened the execution of U.S. airmen after the famed Doolittle raid on Tokyo.

The Cabinet. By his own confession, the Prince had "no words to apologize to His Imperial Majesty that things came to such a head. . . ." Promptly he chose his Cabinet--mostly civilians with past ministerial experience and records of collaboration with the militarists. In Washington's eyes, they were the old crowd that had ruled Japan through war and defeat.

Outstanding among the new Ministers: hypochondriacal Prince Fumimaro Konoye, 53, ex-Premier who resigned two months before Pearl Harbor, now Minister without Portfolio; wily Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai, 65, ex-Premier and a holdover from the Suzuki Cabinet, now Navy Minister; one-legged Mamoru Shigemitsu, 58, an Army favorite, another Cabinet holdover, now Foreign Minister. The War Ministry went to the new Premier.

The Program. Next day Premier Prince Higashi-Kuni broadcast to the soldiers of Japan: "The decision has been taken to cease fire and return to peace." For all the nation he outlined a new "policy." High points:

P: "Immediate and most important" is the task of carrying out "negotiations relative to the execution of the provisions of the Potsdam declaration." (Kusuo Oya, chief of Japan Broadcasting Corp.'s overseas bureau, announced: "We have lost, but this is temporary.")

P: There must be discipline and order--"no action or words in violation of His Imperial Majesty's instructions." But "I am desirous of encouraging energetic and open discussion and recognizing the freedom of wholesome association." (Domei reported that the domestic police force would be greatly expanded.)

P: Everything possible will be done to alleviate the "foodstuff, clothing and housing" situation. But the nation must be ready for "anguish . . . suffering ... life of stoicism." (The Welfare Ministry launched a drive to popularize a new bread made of "waste starch, acorns, pigweed, clover leaves, potato vines.")

P: The key to the future is "reconstruction." (Other Government statements explained: reconstruction means new taxes, anti-inflation measures, quick industrial reconversion, more food production. Added Domei: because the enemy's superior science won victory, "we must devote ourselves to scientific knowledge.")

Then Prince Higashi-Kuni made pilgrimage to the famed Meiji and Yasukuni shrines. There he offered a Shinto prayer to Japan's fallen war heroes, those who "gave their lives to become the spirits which guard our Empire." There he pledged himself "to endure all hardships in safeguarding national polity . . . and reconstructing Japan."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.