Evening star., 1945-03-25
Tokyo Capitulation Held
Likely if Palace Is Bombed
Demand by Hirohto Who Didn't Want War, That
Hostilities Cease Declared More Probable
Than Fight to Bitter End
By K. K. Kapakami

| on, as is most likely, not only to destroy
military objectives but also for terroriza-
ton, 1t would be far more humane,
logical, and effective to bomb. the i'm
| perial palace rather than the teeming
| quarters where helpless millions would
have little chance of escaping the death
unleashed from the skies. No bombing,
one may be sure, can inflict bodily harm
upon the Emperor or his family, for
they are no doubt provided with i'm
penetrable shelters. Yet bombs dropped
upon the palace grounds would have an
incomparably great "terrorizing value"
for the simple reason that they would
shake the whole country as could no
other agents of force.
Could Be Highly Effective.
The resultant popular shock and in
dignation can in due course of time be
largely neutralized by firm yet liberal
American policy after the peace. The
important thing to be done is to con-
vince the Japanese people that America
has come to rescue them and their
sovereign from the clutches of the mill
tarists. A postwar policy combining
f1rmness, justice and fairness will prove
far more effective in winning Japanese
collaboration with the victorious lib
orators than any such tactical scruples
as the immunization Of the imperial
palace. America, practically the sole
subjugator of Japan, is in a position to
deal with the vanquished nation much
as she pleases, though she may have to
go through the formalities of another
Yalta, possibly at Honolulu or Manila.
1t is even possible that the bombing
OF the imperial palace will hasten the
end of Japanese resistance. Remember
Hirohito is weak-willed but well-mean-
ing. He did not want Japan plunged
into war, and he told his generals so.
But being weak man he could not
hold them in leash.
Now if his palace were bombed Hiro-
hito would not have the nerve to issue
fiery rescript exhorting the nation to
fight to the last man. That is not the
way weak man would react to such
situation More likely Hirohito would
speak out with courage of desperation
and tell his generals and admirals in
no uncertain terms that the war must
cease, and at once. And the militarists
themselves, knowing that the war, for
all practical purpose, has long since
been lost, might welcome this opportu-
nifty to pass the buck to the throne and
throw up the sponge, declaring that
though they are themselves determined
to fight to the death. they must obey
the imperial command
Irritated by Detour.
In my boyhood days. in Tokyo, I had
to walk seven Or SO miles to and from
my school every day. The distance was
unnecessarily great because the vast
forbidden acres of the imperial palace
grounds, surrounded by wide moats,
stood in the way. AS trudged, morning
and evening, along the circuitous streets
which skirted the ancient moats, often
bethought myself, with no little feeling
of irritation, that there was no practical
need for isolating so vast tract of land
in the heart of crowded Tokyo. The
imperial buildings themselves occupy
only small fraction of the grounds.
Why not open road or roads through
it? If the Emperor did this of his own
accord he would win the gratitude and
affection of the millions of Tokyo. Be-
sides. the waters of the moats are
turgid and disease-breeding Why not
fill them up by leveling the hills and
knobs on the further banks, thus re-
claiming an extensive space much need
ed for commercial purposes? So thought
I. And know that hundreds of young
students had the same idea. Woe to
him who would dare voice such heresy,
for he would be charged with lese
majeste and flung into prison!
No modern cities have such vast acres
secluded against the populace. In Lon
don royal palaces front on public thor
oughfares. So do palaces in Paris and
Berlin, as they did even in the days of
emperors and kaisers. Moscow still has
its Kremlin commanding a vast ground
inclosed by forbidding walls, but then
Moscow Is not entirely modern.
If American bombardiers succeed in
demolishing those hills shutting the
palace ground from public view, my boy
hood dream of roads through those
grounds may yet become a reality. And
those roads. If and when built, may
symbolic the demise of the divine En-
peror and the birth of humanized, con-
stitutional monarch loving and loved by
his subjects. Only then may we say
with the British: THE King can do no
wrong"