The time had moved into the era of Emperor Showa, and World War II had broken out.
The mind of Japanese people had been occupied by the single thought, “Sacrificing everything for the sake of the country” until the defeat in the war.
It had been the time to have no choice.
And also, it had been the time when Japanese mythology had been the Emperor had been interpreted in each war leader’s own favor.
There had been no free expression of ideas.
For example the Jinshin War had been erased its truth from history textbooks.
Because the 39th Emperor who had taken over Emperor Tenji know by his charismatic character had been defined as Emperor Tenji’s son, Prince Otomo and given the Emperor name, “Emperor Kobun”.
It had been absolutely unforgivable act to try to kill the Emperor.
However, it had been Emperor Tenji’s brother, Prince Oama to try to kill Prince Otomo.
He had been also known as the 40th Emperor, the Emperor Tenmu.
They could have even discussed the Jinshin War, because the unforgivable man who had try to kill the Emperor had been another Emperor.
In other word, it had been regarded as a sort of taboo.
The Jinshin War had been treated as something like blue rose, and known and described as “the mythology of ancient Japanese history” by historians.
It had been after defeat in the war for all Japanese people to be able to talk about the kind of thing, “the Emperor is not a god but a human being” without trouble.
In fact, however, Emperor Showa himself had never made an assertion like “I am a living God”.
The very Emperor Showa had released the paper that people could have read “Emperor is not the living god but the human being as well as Japanese citizen” on the 01 January 1946, the one year after the end of World War II.
In those days, Japan had been under the control of the U.S.-led Allied forces, and this document made the front page of all the Japanese newspapers had been said to create on the initiative of the Allied forces.
But still, the writings hadn’t denied the existences of the successive Emperors who had already been enshrined as the deities in each shrine.
And also it hadn’t denied Japanese mythology.
It hadn’t meant the prohibition of the traditional shrine rituals dedicated to the Japanese deities.
Based on these details, it could have said that the victorious countries had had tolerance for defeated country, Japan.
It had been natural that the thought like “Japan is superior to other country” on the ground of mythology had been banned, but Japanese mythology itself had been denied.
Also they hadn’t denied the existence of Emperor, and the period of Emperor Showa’s reign had been as long as 62 years including the post war period.
And today, the Constitution of Japan declares “the Emperor of Japan is the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people”.
