| OCR Text |
Show !i EMPEROR OF JAPAN, MONARCH OF OLDEST ' DYNASTY OF WORLD, DECLARED TO BE DYING a Death of Ruler May Mean End tj ' of Autocratic Regime Eh In Japan h - ? ! ' Tty JACK MASON. Manager, Far Eastern Bureau of The t 9 Newspaper Enterprise Association, i . '. nt Shanghai. China. A . '. ' Copyright, 1920. Newspaper fejjy-i Enterprise Association. ISfcja. TOKIO. Japan. May In Yoshlhito. fFfr the mikado of Japan, Is a dying jT man. He is the last of the dynas-Hjvi-tic' autocrats. "The czar is dead; the J2 kaiser In exile; the 'emperor of -Auk-Em tria-Hungary Is no more. 9 This la the first news of his de3-H de3-H - perate Illness that has reached ihe H world, as'o Japanese newspaper has H even mentioned ltj the law prohibits j Ej them from commenting on such mat- i It tors relating to the royal family I But I have it today from the most i reliable sources that he is now in . his last Illness and that it Is only j ! a question of a short time beforo i i this mikado will be gathered to his j ?-j ' 121 fathers who havo ruled Japan ft before him. fi Affects Ills Brain ;' J . Emperor Yoshihito's condition is T . said to be pitiable. His ailment has , : i atiectcd his hraln and he is Incap- J . able of attending to the simplest af- II."''" fairs of state, even if he Is ablo to Wi' ' recognize those about him. B Only a few days ago, a great con- H fcrence of imperial princes and elder statesmen was held to discuss the 1) financial crisis in Japan. The con-Bp"' con-Bp"' rreres did not go to the imperial vllla at all. Unless Yoshlhito was entirely Incapable, no such meeting could have been held except under HI - his chairmanship. R On April 15, new ministers from H Great Britain, Mexico and Czecho- D ' Slovakia presented their credentials. W For tho first time on such an oc-casion oc-casion they were received by tho crown princo in place of the cm- pcror. The stricken ruler is living at the !' Imperial villa, located close to the beautiful seashoro village of Hayama. J The grounds arc most carefully guarded and a heavy veil of secrecy p has been drawn about Yoshlhito, . . even inside tho house itself, so that ' tho facts of his despairing condition - ! shall not leak out. However, many ! stories of his unbalanced actions and 1 hablta are carried under the breath ( j from place to place over the nation. Facts About Mikado i!jV:' " 'It ,s P0881016 tnat a rogent may ; lirT'..... L YOSIIIT-nTO ! H. I. M., the Emperor of Japan. I j bo appointed if death does not come uhortly. Emperor Yoshlhito is about -I L years old. He ascended the Japanese throne in the summer of 1912 when his great father, Mutsuhlto, died. Mutsuhito will always be famous as the emperor under whom Japan blossomed out of barbarism into civilization in a few decades. Yoshlhito is tho 122nd emperor of Japan in direct line of succession, the dynasty being the oldest in the world. In fact, this ruling lino runs back before Japanese written history; but Emperor Jlmmu Tenno, who lived in GOO B. C, is generally accepted i ine lounuer or tho dynasty. The average reign of the whole lino is 20 years and seven mikados, the old title of the ruler, were women. wom-en. Each mikado had a personal name, but no family name. Each also has a posthumous name by which he or she is known in history. Mikado Means "Exalted Gate" The title mikado, meaning "Exalted Gate," was tho official designation of this sovereign for more than 2000 years and tho namo occurs In poetry and history through tho whole range of Japanese literature. The mikado was himself ruled for many centuries by' a Shogun. a sort of prime minister, but in 1SG7 this high lord wns done away with and the emperor became a real autocrat auto-crat In Japan tho 'government is a constitutional monarchy more like Germany was under the kaiser than respect of the masses of lato years has been gaining in importance and though there is tt parliament which as England Is under a king. Al-t Al-t is still very much subordinate to tho rulor. The emperor is really a Gcreen behind be-hind which the representatives of the old feudal aristocracy, known as "Elder Statesmen," control tho who)e country, its politics and its economics. econo-mics. In the old days, these elder ctates-men ctates-men were scmi-lndependont princes, continually waging war with each other and with the dominant shogun. In tho half-century or more since Japan changed from barbarism, they have been bending every effort to keep tho old aristocracy in control of the government. They have so far managed to hold down the franchise fran-chise and retain the law making the government ministers responsible to the emperor and not to parliament. parlia-ment. Liberals Would Fight Regency Moderates and liberals havo been very active in Japan for 10" to 15 years, their greatest efforts being against militarism and to make tho government responsible to parliament, parlia-ment, and therefore, responsible to tho people. The paragraph in Mason's dispatch that a regent may bo appointed is significant. A regent would bo appointed ap-pointed by the elder statesmen and their selection would stand with them for militarism anil against people's peo-ple's rights. The crown prince, Hlrohito, who was 19 years old in April, Is tho legal successor to tho throne. He has been a lieutenant in the navy and is said to have liberal views liberal for a prince. If he is not appointed regent, will civil war follow, the people peo-ple against the old feudal lords? And if so, will tho result be a constitutional con-stitutional government on the order Jof England's or. indeed, a republic? |
