"Shusuke Nomura gave his life to the Divine in front of a lot who do not believe that a human being can communicate with the Divine through one's life," Hasegawa stated. She added, "No matter what the (late Emperor Showa's) Humanity Declaration said, and no matter what the Constitution states, our Emperor once again became a living god" through Nomura's act, effectively rejecting the Constitutional stipulation that the Emperor is a symbolic monarch.Nomura Shusuke was an ultra-right activist and party leader. On 20 October 1993 he committed suicide in the guest reception room on the 15th floor of the headquarters of The Asahi Shimbun. He had demanded a meeting with the persons responsible for the publication of a derogatory drawing depicting his Association of the Wind (風の会) as The Louse Party (虱の党). Not getting the attention he felt he deserved, he shot himself.
The Hasegawa in the above quote is Hasegawa Michiko, one of the three persons whom Abe Shinzo appointed to Board of Governors of national broadcaster NHK on October 25 last year. The quoted remarks are from a memorial essay she published as part of a special tribute to paid to Nomura on the 20th anniversary of his suicide.
I am not making this up.
Seriously, I am not making this up.
Read the Mainichi Shimbun's English-language article about the whole matter here.
It is official now: the excrement has hit the rotary air motion device.
6 comments:
Amazing.
So Nomura restored the Tenno to his proper place of divinity by shooting himself over an editorial cartoon?
Makes sense to me.
If these people like Tamogami and Hasegawa actually were able to run the country, would their first order of business be to get a new Emperor? Because judging by his statements and conduct in public, it would seem Emperor Akihito would disagree with his worshipers on a great many things.
I suppose they could always go back to the Tokugawa model of governance by keeping the Emperor secluded away in Kyoto and only the Shogun..er, Prime Minster has the privledge of seeing him.
It's ok everyone, I just snapped my fingers and through that act restored the Emperor to symbolic status. Phew. Carry on.
Anonymous -
Thanks. But I just spilled some coffee and dammit, that means he's divine again.
Nobody should be surprised nationalist acts or statements, in any country, make exactly no kind of sense; nor should they be surprised the logic of the Japanese ones make less, as reasoned debate is little used in a place the ad hominem is the first resort.
A hell of a month for the NHK. I prefer my broadcasters like Fox and the present NHK, biases easily identified and so the network discountable, more than I do the ones where it is less obvious but still exists: CBC, BBC, etc.
It's even richer than that: Asahi Shimbun questioned her about the piece, and reported on Feb. 6:
"Hasegawa seemed to have no problem with the fact that Nomura whipped out two pistols and fired live rounds inside commercial premises. 'Rather than consider it an act of terrorism or pressure against the media, efforts should be made to find spiritual meaning in the act,' she said."
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