The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-10
Hirohito Is Actually
 The Prisoner Of Toio
(Continued from Page D

would succeed in his effort to be- come another Shogun-not because the Emperor will reclaim his power but because Japan's traditional way of meeting military or diplomatic defeats is to change cabinets.
 Thus, while much of his present power is result of Japan'S early military and naval victories seri- ous defeat might wreck his ambi- tionS.
 The Emperor spends most of his days passing out medals to army and navy officers and issuing 1mper- ial rescripts praising the work of Japan's armed forces.
 He visits the various shrines to the war dead-who, like himself, are worshipped as gods.
 Tojo and the other War-makers have succeeded in iSolating him from his more conservative advisers and refuse to let him know fully what is going on in the world.
 His demands for the complete editions of all newspapers are said to have been turned down, and he gets only carefully censored clip pings.
 All of his court functions have been suspended.
 Occasionally he plays golf on his private course on the palace grounds. But he plays alone, because there is no one regarded aS worthy of playing with hlm. And anyone who defeated him would be expected to commit hari-kari.
 First Ships Sunk
 Three big Japanese liners, the Va sakuni, Iwata Maru-beneved con- verted to aircraft carriers-and the troop-laden Nitta Maru were among the first ships sunk by Allied Sub- marines in the Pacific war.
 The three liners were in addition to the sinking of fourth big Jap anese ship, the l4,457-ton Taiyo Maru, which went down in flames off Hong Kong with loss of hun- dredS of enemy technical experts after an attack by an American submarine.
 Japanese sources reported that the Taiyo Maru blew up and was swept by fire from stem to stern after the torpedo hit exploded a boiler.
 The captain perished with the vessel, which sank at night which made rescue of those aboard ex- tremely difficult.
 The Yasakuni Maru was of Ill., 933 tons, a ship of the great Mitsu- Bishi Company, built at Tokyo in 1880. The Nitta Maru was of 16,50O tons and was built at Tokyo in 1889 by the same Japanese concern.
 Both vessels, as well as the Iwata Maru. were reported sunk by Amer ican and Dutch submarines.
 It was not positively established that the Iwata and Yasakuni had been converted into aircraft car riers but the best available informa- tion indicated that they had. Each carried thousands of persons in ad- dition to vast equipment for the Japanese armies conducting offen- sives southward at that time. The vessels were among the newest and finest of the Japanese merchant marine.
 It also was reported reliably that the captain of the Magasatti Maru committed hari kari late in May after his ship struck a Japanese mine in Japanese waters. A week earlier the Emperor had decorated the captain for capturing the U. s. Liner President Harrison in Shang- hai on the first day of the war.
 The Taiyo Maru sinking caused the Japanese to change their plans in connection with sending techni- cal experts to the southern conquer ed areas. These experts now sail southward in small groups on g number of ships rather than in large units. This was said to have resulted in delaying the organiza- tion of plans to exploit occupied areas.