Emperor Showa's Visit to Europe and International Criticism--December 1971

Emperor Showa's Visit to Europe and International Criticism--December 1971

In 1971, the first postwar outing by the Showa Emperor, especially his visit to Europe, was regarded in Japan as a symbol of "goodwill diplomacy" and "restoration of international trust after the war," but the international community was harshly critical of the visit. In particular, the high-end French newspaper Le Monde pointed out that the Emperor's visit to Europe was "diplomacy based on anti-communist intentions," and reported that the strategy behind the visit was to get closer to the Western camp under the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Le Monde took issue with the nature of the Japanese imperial system itself. The article declared the Japanese emperor system to be "an old system incompatible with democracy," and criticized the emperor's "absence of any clear explanation or apology" when he visited Europe for Japan's history of complicity with fascism before and during World War II, especially its collaboration with Nazi Germany. Twenty-six years after the war, Emperor Showa was still being reevaluated domestically as a "symbolic emperor" without mentioning his war responsibility, but the progressive discourse in Europe was not convinced by his "silence.

In response to this visit to Europe, there were a series of protests and demonstrations in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany from former colonies, former POWs, and citizens of the affected countries. In the Netherlands, newspapers reported opinions that the emperor should be put on trial for war crimes, and Japanese families living there were harassed by graffiti on their walls.

In Japan, on the other hand, such critical reports were rarely reported by the mass media. At the time, Japan was in the final stages of its rapid economic growth, and stabilizing its foreign policy and improving its international image were of paramount importance. However, the harsh reactions from abroad highlighted how deep-rooted the inadequacy of the "postwar process" and the "gap in historical understanding" were internationally.

Critical reports such as those in Le Monde confronted the unresolved historical issues behind the Emperor's visit, which on the surface appeared to be "goodwill diplomacy. This event symbolized the gap between economic growth and political maturity, and the issues of memory and responsibility that Japan faced in the postwar era.