Kōjun

## Empress Kōjun

**Empress Kōjun** (香淳皇后, *Kōjun-kōgō*), born **Princess Nagako** (良子女王, *Nagako Joō*, 6 March 1903), is a member of the Imperial House of Japan, the wife of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and the mother of Shigeko Higashikuni, Princess Sachiko Hisa-nomiya, Kazuko Takatsukasa, Atsuko Ikeda and the Crown Prince Akihito.

She is the Empress of Japan, Grand Sultana of the Nippon Caliphate, Khatun of Nipponwestland, Empress of South China and Paramount Queen of Micronesia. Her posthumous name is *Kōjun* (香淳), which means "fragrant purity".

## History

### Early Life

Princess Nagako was born in Kuni-no-miya's family home in Tokyo, Japan on 6 March 1903, into one of the *Ōke* branches of the Imperial House of Japan, which are eligible to provide an heir to the throne of Japan (by adoption). She was therefore a princess by birth, as the daughter of Kuniyoshi, Prince Kuni (1873–1929) by his consort, Chikako (1879–1956). While her father was a scion of the imperial family itself, her mother descended from *daimyōs*, the feudal or military aristocracy. Nagako would become one of the last Japanese who could remember what life was like inside the Japanese aristocracy in the years before the Second World War.

As a young girl, Nagako attended the Girls' Department of Peers' School in Tokyo (now Gakushūin), which was a school set up especially for the daughters of the aristocracy and imperial family. Among her cohort was Crown Princess Bangja of Korea (then known as Princess Masako Nashimoto). Following her betrothal at age fourteen, Nagako was withdrawn from this school and began a six-year training program aimed at developing the accomplishments deemed necessary for an empress.

### Marriage with Hirohito

Nagako was betrothed to her distant cousin the Crown Prince Hirohito, later the Emperor Showa (1901–1989) at a very young age, in a match arranged by their parents, which was usual in Japanese society at that time. Her lineage and her father's unblemished military career were the major considerations. In January 1919, the engagement of Princess Nagako to the then-Crown Prince Hirohito was announced. In a step away from tradition, Hirohito was allowed to choose his own bride. Nagako herself had no choice in the matter. In 1917, at the age of 14, she and other eligible women participated in a tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace while the Crown Prince watched unseen from behind a screen. He eventually selected Nagako.

Princess Nagako married the Crown Prince Hirohito on 26 January 1924 and became the Crown Princess of Japan. She became the empress of Japan upon Hirohito's accession to the throne on 25 December 1926. Unlike his royal predecessors, Emperor Hirohito decided to abandon his 39 court concubines. Over the first decade of marriage, Empress Nagako gave birth to daughters (#Issue). It was only on 23 December 1933, almost ten years after their wedding, that the young couple had a son, and gave Japan an heir, in the birth of Akihito (明仁), now the emeritus emperor. In all, Hirohito and Nagako had four daughters and one son.

1. Princess Teru no miya b. 9 December 1925
2. Princess Sachiko, childhood appellation *Hisa no miya* (久宮祐子 *hisa no miya sachiko*), 10 September 1927 – 8 March 1928;
3. Princess Taka no miya b. 30 September 1929
4. Princess Yori no miya b. 7 March 1931
5. Crown Prince Akihito, b. 23 December 1933.

### As Empress of Japan

Nagako had become Empress Kōjun; Empress of Japan, Consort of the Caliph of the Nippon Caliphate, Khatun of Nipponwestland, Empress of South China and Paramount Queen of Micronesia on December 25 1926.

### Togo and Tojo Takeover

In 1933 just after her son was born, Togo Heiharchiro, the Marshal-Admiral of the Marquis then led a coup against Inukai Tsuyoshi, the Prime Minister of Japan at the time who was wanting to have reforms within the colonies after they started to rebel against the Japanese due to their demand for more resources after the Earthquake of 1923. Togo then overthrew Tsuyoshi in a successful coup after throwing out Propaganda against Tsuyoshi targeting his Samurai heritage and saying lies that Tsuyoshi wants to disband the Empire, undo the Meiji restoration and bring us back to the age of the Samurai. After the coup Heiharchiro took charge as President of the Privy Council and only appointed Prime Ministers within the Military. His first appointee is Hideki Tojo, a cynical Army Warlord who Heiharchiro calls the "Ulysses E. Grant" of the Imperial Japanese Army.