Final Destination of the Imperial Memorial Visits
NISHIKAWA Megumi / Journalist
December 31, 2018
The This year, on August 15, Their Imperial Majesties Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attended the annual Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead for the last time during their reign. In a sense, they were also reaching a final destination on their lengthy voyage of memorialization with this last stop at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo’s Kudanshita district. Of course, even after stepping down from the Chrysanthemum Throne, Akihito will continue to think of those who lost their lives in the conflict with the same fervor that he always has; but this summer’s ceremony was the last time for him to express this thought with the whole of his physical being, before the eyes of the nation.
I watched this final ceremony on television. After reading his statement before the memorial cenotaph and folding up the manuscript, he gazed up to the pillar standing before him for some moments, seemingly loath to walk away from this place. As he exited the venue, he bowed his head numerous times to those in attendance.
Emperor Akihito’s and Empress Michiko’s first journey to console the spirits of those lost in World War II took place in February 1994, when they traveled to Ioto (Iwo Jima) in the Ogasawara island chain. In 2005 they would visit Saipan, achieving the first memorial visit to foreign soil. In 2015, they went as far as the island of Peleliu in the South Pacific nation of Palau to pay their respects. And in all of the international tours they made in the cause of Japan’s international friendships, they made sure to include offerings of respect and prayers to those lost in wartime as part of their official schedule.
One key aspect of these memorial visits has been their role as a visible form of the act of prayer. As the years have passed and Their Majesties have slowed down physically, they have continued to make these appearances before the public, bowing so deeply their bodies fold at nearly a right angle as they offer prayers. Whether they stand before a cenotaph, face out over the ocean, or contemplate the plunging drop of a cliff before them, their earnest act of deeply bowing their heads cannot fail to inspire a profound emotional response in those watching.
Instilling the visible aspects of these visits with still more meaning have been the poems recited by the Emperor and Empress on each occasion. These verses, providing a glimpse of Their Majesties’ emotions during the visits, stir our imagination when we read them even now, calling to mind anew images of the memorial tours. Take, for example, the poem recited by Empress Michiko during the June 2005 visit to Saipan:
Ima wa tote / shima hate no gake / fumi kerishi / o mina no aura / omoeba kanashi
At the end of this island
Those women with determination
Kicked the cliff and jumped
Ah, sad to think of the power
Of their soft foot-soles.
The view of the Emperor and Empress, solemnly bowing their heads as they stood before the cliff edge, was overlaid with the sad vision of those who had flung themselves to their deaths decades earlier. By encapsulating this image in thirty-one syllables of verse, Her Majesty cemented this memorial visit all the more vividly in the collective memory.
What was the significance of these memorial visits?
Firstly, they have been a means for Emperor Akihito to acknowledge the responsibility of his father, the late Emperor Showa, who was unable to halt the war. These visits have been an imperial initiative to display sincere reflection on Japan’s history through the wordless acts of prayer.
Secondly, these memorial visits, carried out by the very living symbols of Japan, have served to display the Japanese moral sense to the international community and to enhance global trust in Japan as a pacifist state.
At various times from the 1960s through the 1980s, concern arose about the possibility that Japan could rise again as a militarist power. Since entering the Heisei era, the reign of the present emperor, in 1989, though, there have been no worried discussions along these lines to speak of (with the exception of comments from China and South Korea prompted by those countries’ historical issues). In the light of this, it can be said that the imperial memorial visits have had a political impact going beyond their moral significance.
Megumi Nishikawa is Contributing Editor for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
I watched this final ceremony on television. After reading his statement before the memorial cenotaph and folding up the manuscript, he gazed up to the pillar standing before him for some moments, seemingly loath to walk away from this place. As he exited the venue, he bowed his head numerous times to those in attendance.
Emperor Akihito’s and Empress Michiko’s first journey to console the spirits of those lost in World War II took place in February 1994, when they traveled to Ioto (Iwo Jima) in the Ogasawara island chain. In 2005 they would visit Saipan, achieving the first memorial visit to foreign soil. In 2015, they went as far as the island of Peleliu in the South Pacific nation of Palau to pay their respects. And in all of the international tours they made in the cause of Japan’s international friendships, they made sure to include offerings of respect and prayers to those lost in wartime as part of their official schedule.
One key aspect of these memorial visits has been their role as a visible form of the act of prayer. As the years have passed and Their Majesties have slowed down physically, they have continued to make these appearances before the public, bowing so deeply their bodies fold at nearly a right angle as they offer prayers. Whether they stand before a cenotaph, face out over the ocean, or contemplate the plunging drop of a cliff before them, their earnest act of deeply bowing their heads cannot fail to inspire a profound emotional response in those watching.
Instilling the visible aspects of these visits with still more meaning have been the poems recited by the Emperor and Empress on each occasion. These verses, providing a glimpse of Their Majesties’ emotions during the visits, stir our imagination when we read them even now, calling to mind anew images of the memorial tours. Take, for example, the poem recited by Empress Michiko during the June 2005 visit to Saipan:
Ima wa tote / shima hate no gake / fumi kerishi / o mina no aura / omoeba kanashi
At the end of this island
Those women with determination
Kicked the cliff and jumped
Ah, sad to think of the power
Of their soft foot-soles.
The view of the Emperor and Empress, solemnly bowing their heads as they stood before the cliff edge, was overlaid with the sad vision of those who had flung themselves to their deaths decades earlier. By encapsulating this image in thirty-one syllables of verse, Her Majesty cemented this memorial visit all the more vividly in the collective memory.
What was the significance of these memorial visits?
Firstly, they have been a means for Emperor Akihito to acknowledge the responsibility of his father, the late Emperor Showa, who was unable to halt the war. These visits have been an imperial initiative to display sincere reflection on Japan’s history through the wordless acts of prayer.
Secondly, these memorial visits, carried out by the very living symbols of Japan, have served to display the Japanese moral sense to the international community and to enhance global trust in Japan as a pacifist state.
At various times from the 1960s through the 1980s, concern arose about the possibility that Japan could rise again as a militarist power. Since entering the Heisei era, the reign of the present emperor, in 1989, though, there have been no worried discussions along these lines to speak of (with the exception of comments from China and South Korea prompted by those countries’ historical issues). In the light of this, it can be said that the imperial memorial visits have had a political impact going beyond their moral significance.
Megumi Nishikawa is Contributing Editor for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
終着迎えた「慰霊の旅」
西川恵 / ジャーナリスト
2018年 12月 31日
天皇、皇后両陛下にとって８月15日の全国戦没者追悼式への出席は、ご自身たちにとって最後となるものだが、同時にこれまで続けてこられた「慰霊の旅」の一つの終着といえる。退位後も、戦没者への思いは変わらず持ち続けられるだろうが、衆目の中を全身で哀悼を示すやり方はこれが最後となった。
追悼式の模様をテレビで見ていたが、標柱の前で原稿を読み上げられた陛下は、原稿をしまわれた後も標柱を見上げられ、しばし去りがたいような様子を見せられた。会場を出る際も、参会者に向かって何度も頭を下げられた。
即位後、両陛下の慰霊の旅は１９９４年２月、小笠原諸島の硫黄島訪問から始まった。２００５年にはサイパンに、初めての外国への慰霊の旅が実現。15年には南太平洋のパラオ・ペリリュー島まで訪れた。また国際親善の外国訪問の折にも、慰霊は必ず日程に組み込まれてきた。
「慰霊の旅」の大きな特徴は「祈る行為の可視化」である。歳を重ねられ、体の動きも緩慢になられていく両陛下が、それでも衆目の中、腰を90度近く曲げられて祈られる。慰霊碑の前で、海の向こうに向かって、断崖の深いふちの前で……。真摯に深々と頭を下げられる様子は何がしかの感慨を見る者に起こさないわけにはいかなかった。
慰霊の旅の可視化をさらに効果あらしめたのが両陛下の詠まれる歌だったと思う。旅での両陛下の心の内をのぞかせる歌は詠む者の想像力をかきたたせ、改めて慰霊の様子を呼び起こした。例えばサイパンの旅での皇后の歌。
いまはとて島果ての崖踏みけりしをみなの足裏(あうら)思えばかなし
断崖の前で一心に頭を垂れる両陛下に、数十年前にその断崖から身を投げていった人々の悲しい姿が重なる。31に刻みつけられることで、慰霊の旅はより鮮明な記憶として定着してきた。
慰霊の旅とは何だったのか。
一つに、父・昭和天皇が戦争を止められなかったことの責任を引き受け、それを果たしていくと共に、歴史への反省を無言の内に示すイニチアチブだった。
二つに、日本の象徴による「慰霊の旅」は日本の道義性を国際社会に示し、平和主義国家・日本への信頼を高めたことは押さえておくべきだろう。
１９６０～80年代、軍国主義・日本の復活の可能性が何度か話題になった。しかし平成になって、歴史問題を抱える中韓は別にして、そうした議論が起きたとは寡聞にして知らない。この点において「慰霊の旅」は道義性を超えた政治的意味合いも持ったといえるだろう。
筆者は毎日新聞客員編集委員
追悼式の模様をテレビで見ていたが、標柱の前で原稿を読み上げられた陛下は、原稿をしまわれた後も標柱を見上げられ、しばし去りがたいような様子を見せられた。会場を出る際も、参会者に向かって何度も頭を下げられた。
即位後、両陛下の慰霊の旅は１９９４年２月、小笠原諸島の硫黄島訪問から始まった。２００５年にはサイパンに、初めての外国への慰霊の旅が実現。15年には南太平洋のパラオ・ペリリュー島まで訪れた。また国際親善の外国訪問の折にも、慰霊は必ず日程に組み込まれてきた。
「慰霊の旅」の大きな特徴は「祈る行為の可視化」である。歳を重ねられ、体の動きも緩慢になられていく両陛下が、それでも衆目の中、腰を90度近く曲げられて祈られる。慰霊碑の前で、海の向こうに向かって、断崖の深いふちの前で……。真摯に深々と頭を下げられる様子は何がしかの感慨を見る者に起こさないわけにはいかなかった。
慰霊の旅の可視化をさらに効果あらしめたのが両陛下の詠まれる歌だったと思う。旅での両陛下の心の内をのぞかせる歌は詠む者の想像力をかきたたせ、改めて慰霊の様子を呼び起こした。例えばサイパンの旅での皇后の歌。
いまはとて島果ての崖踏みけりしをみなの足裏(あうら)思えばかなし
断崖の前で一心に頭を垂れる両陛下に、数十年前にその断崖から身を投げていった人々の悲しい姿が重なる。31に刻みつけられることで、慰霊の旅はより鮮明な記憶として定着してきた。
慰霊の旅とは何だったのか。
一つに、父・昭和天皇が戦争を止められなかったことの責任を引き受け、それを果たしていくと共に、歴史への反省を無言の内に示すイニチアチブだった。
二つに、日本の象徴による「慰霊の旅」は日本の道義性を国際社会に示し、平和主義国家・日本への信頼を高めたことは押さえておくべきだろう。
１９６０～80年代、軍国主義・日本の復活の可能性が何度か話題になった。しかし平成になって、歴史問題を抱える中韓は別にして、そうした議論が起きたとは寡聞にして知らない。この点において「慰霊の旅」は道義性を超えた政治的意味合いも持ったといえるだろう。
筆者は毎日新聞客員編集委員
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟