Spots on the Symbol

Rumors that Emperor Hirohito would soon step down from the throne were freely aired last week in the Japanese press. Said an Imperial Household spokesman: the stories were nonsense.

They were not nonsense: there was evident logic behind them. Even in his prewar and wartime effulgence, Hirohito was not worshiped as a personal god but as a symbol of the nation. Any other man (with a claim to descent from the sun goddess) would have served the purpose as well. But now, Hirohito is tarnished by his association with the malefactors who made the war and lost it. Hirohito's involvement will be highlighted shortly when Tojo and other top criminals receive their sentences.

Crown Prince Akihito, 14, is unsmirched by the war: to Japanese, he would be a spotless symbol. The prevalent view last week was that Hirohito would abdicate in his son's favor, with Hirohito's brother, Prince Takamatsu, assuming a regency until Akihito comes of age. Many Japanese who most urgently want to preserve the imperial institution are most in favor of Hirohito's stepping down.

Said a SCAP official last week to TIME Correspondent Carl Mydans: "It's pure speculation, but it's my guess that when MacArthur announces his departure you can look for an announcement that Hirohito has stepped out--or when you hear that Akihito has become Emperor you'll hear of MacArthur's leaving." Other Tokyo observers speculated that an abdication might be timed to coincide with "the end of the occupation."

Meanwhile further cuts in the Imperial Household budget seemed likely, and Premier Hitoshi Ashida put the boot to some of Hirohito's old-guard retainers, who still wore striped pants and cutaways, still called the Emperor O-kami (Honorable God). Imperial Grand Steward Yoshitami Matsudaira, a palace henchman for 37 years, resigned and "moved across the moat."

Akihito, riding his motor scooter around the grounds of his palace in East Tokyo, seemed in no hurry to become a symbol.

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