Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower

Author:John W. Dower
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2014-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

Unveiling the Draft Constitution

On March 6, with great fanfare, the new constitution was made known to the public in a manner that gave equal prominence to the emperor and to the ideals of democracy and peace. In the name of the emperor, Prime Minister Shidehara released a detailed “outline” for constitutional revision, accompanying this with a brief but quite eloquent endorsement of the proposed new ideals. Few observers could have guessed that hours earlier the prime minister and his cabinet had been in tears. Emperor Hirohito’s imperial rescript was released simultaneously, tersely announcing the need to revise “drastically” the existing national charter and commanding the government to comply with his wishes. On the same day, General MacArthur announced that this “decision of the Emperor and the Government of Japan to submit to the Japanese people a new and enlightened constitution . . . has my full approval.”24

These three rhetorical exercises set the tone for the ensuing debates on creating a new monarchical democracy. Shidehara typically began with effusive homage to the sovereign, who had been “pleased to grant to the cabinet” an imperial message. “In order that our nation may fall in line with other nations in the march toward the attainment of the universal ideal of mankind,” Shidehara declared, “His Majesty with great decision has commanded that the existing Constitution be fundamentally revised so as to establish the foundation upon which a democratic and peaceful Japan is to be built.”

The prime minister then proceeded to speak movingly of the passage of mankind from war to peace, cruelty to mercy, slavery to liberty, tyranny and confusion to order. In a suggestive turn of phrase, he intimated that the pacifistic nature of the proposed charter could establish a vanguard role for Japan in the world. “If our people are to occupy a place of honor in the family of nations, we must see to it that our constitution internally establishes the foundation for a democratic government and externally leads the rest of the world for the abolition of war. Namely, we must renounce for all time war as a sovereign right of the State and declare to all the world our determination to settle by peaceful means all disputes with other countries.” The prime minister went on to express his faith that all Japanese would honor the benevolent wish of their sovereign, and concluded by noting that the draft constitution was being made public “in close cooperation with Allied General Headquarters.”

Emperor Hirohito’s rescript read in full:

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