The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-06
BY ROBERT TALLEY NEA Service Writer


 .. .. NEA Service Writer
 What win you give the Emper- or. the Lord of Heaven" So runs school child's catechism. And the child is trained to ans- wer: "All my possessions, and my life when he requires it." In the estimation of the Jap anese, the sickly-looking and be- spectacled young man who sits in the palace at Tokio to-day is not q mere human. He is a god - The Son of Heaven"-and SO were all his ancestors in his heaven born line, which goes back to six centur- ies before Christ. They were kings long before the day of Julius Cae- sar, and 300 years before Alexan- der the Great conquered tho known world.
 Reverence for the emperor is ingrained in the cradle. grows { throughout the years and makes death glorious when 1t promotes his cause. Wars are fought for the em- peror. In the war with Russia, sol diers rushed to battle shouting his name. ;. died with a smile on lips that gasped 1t until the last.
 
 His person Is sacred. No ordinary , commoner may touch him - not even his barber, his dentis or his tailor. The barber and dentist must wear silk gloves when working on him, the tailor does his fitting on another man of the same stature. Despite his enormous power and riches, the aged Emperor Mutsu- hito suffered from lack of proper nursing during his last illness for this reason.
 The present Emperor Iirohito, 123rd ruler in the heaven-born line had modified things somewhat. When, as prince-regent he return ed from an European tour several years ago, he permitted a rousing public reception like those often given the Prince of Wales. old Japanese were horror stricken; the custom of centuries had dictated that when a member of the royal family passed the people should stand in reverent silence with head bowed that no ordinary mortal might look down upon the emper- or from above, and to this end the curtains on upper-story windows of houses must be drawn before he appeared.
 Though Japan has had a con- stitution al government and an elected diet (congress) since 1890, the emperor Is still al!-powerful. No czar of Russia ever had more power over his subjects than Hiro- hito has to-day. The constitution says the emperor rules by divine right in accordance with the laws made by the diet; actually, his fm- perial decree can set aside or make any law, even declare war.
 He is commander-in-ch of both the army and the navy. he appoints the cabinet that runs the country, his rayol family draws $2.O00,00O d year from the tax payers, has vast personal for tune, owns 5,000,000 acres of land in crowded Japan where land is worth as high as $1,000 an acre.
 1t is doubtful If there is q sol dier in Japan'se army or a sailor in Japan's navy who would not be willing to fall upon g. sword, glad Iy, at a nod from this bespectacled young man in Tokio. The gravest sin in tn eJapanese code Is dis loyalty to the throne.
 
 The Japanese people would no more think of putting the emper- or's picture on money or postage stamps than we would think of do- ing the same with a picture of Christ. His picture is treated rever- entIy and framed in every school. X few years ago two school teach era were fined heavily for drinking sake in a room in which his pie ture hung.
 In case the school catches fire, the emperor's picture is tLe first thing that must be saved. A fla vorite story in Japan is about a school boy who rushed into d blazing room to rescue the em- peror's picture, found he was un- able to escape, ripped the picture from the frame, gashed his abdo- men with sword that he snatched from the wall, stuffed the picture therein and died in the flames with the precious portrait in his body.
 This boy became national hero in Japan. !.
 IIirohito, the present emperor, was born August 29, 1901. Be | cause of the illness of his father, Emperor Yoshihito (the old man had sofetning of the brain) he was