The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1945-06-28
Why codde Hirohto? For A Safer Fourth

The continued failure of the American
high command to order deliberate bombing
attacks against the Imperial Palace in Tokyo
is Leading more and more Americans to ask:
Why coddle Hirohito?
All our wartime emotions tell us this
miserable Son of Heaven should be listed
among the most infamous of war criminals
and ruthleSSly exterminated Whether he
is mere puppet or not seems entirely i'm
material. The japanese are fighting the war
IN nus name, and the result is an ever in
creaSlng toll of American casualties.
But the men who select our bombing OBJ
lectlveS In japan haven't spared Hirohito
out OF love or sympathy. They would bomb
the Imperial Palace daily if they believed
such attacks would hasten the end of the
war, or save American lives The fact that
they have not bombed the Palace is proof
that they believe such attacks would not
save lives or hasten victory. And they have
their reasons
Hlrohlto is one of the best protected men
IN the world. He is moved constantly and
secretly from the deep tunnels of one palace
TO another, from one city to another, from
one country estate to another. Rarely is our
intelligence service aware of his exact
whereabouts at any given moment. And the
only result of announcing an air offensive
against him personally would be to increase
his prestige among his own people if we
failed, as we almost certainly would.
An even greater danger however, lies in
the slim possibility that lucky bomb might
actually find Hirohito in an unguarded
moment. He would then become martyr
for whom the Japanese would fight even
more fanatically than they do today. Be-
cause we know religious persecution begets
AID 60,
is religious more than political, is some
thing our fighting men are not anxious to
encourage, because they. must pay for it
with their own lives.
So the dilemma is this If we try to kill
Hirohito and fail, the Japanese will inter-
pref our failure as evidence of their en-
peror'S divinity, and of his supernatural
power to save them eventually from final
defeat. And if we try to kill Hirohito and
succeed, we make a martyr of him and drive
the Japanese into even more savage orgies
of religious frenzy, which might be especial
ly disastrous for Americans now in Japan
csc prison camps
But we need not feel frustrated by this
dilemma. After all, to prove to the Jap
aneSe that their emperor can die would
only prove to them something they already
know. More important is to demonstrate to
them HlrohltoS utter helpleSSneSS as liv-
ing, breathing god" Let him sit on his
throne, in possession of all his powers, and
free from serious outside harrassment. Let
him hurl against us all the supernatural
power he claims to possess, including the
tabled divine winds. And then demon
Strate, dramatically and concluSively, his
pitiful inability to prevent or interfere with
the systematic destruction of his country
and people all around him. Demonstrate his
inability to preserve the myth of the in
violable holy islands and the unconquer-
able divine race.
When we have done this, perhaps the
japanese people will begin to realize how
thoroughly they have been duped. And
perhaps then we can achieve easily what
must be our incorporating long range
goal: the destruction of imperial power in
japan.