TOKYO
Japan’s Emperor Akihito, whose father’s reign saw a war that cost three million Japanese lives, marked his 81st birthday Tuesday by calling for a peaceful future for the country, local media reported.
Noting next year’s 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Akihito called for a “better Japan,” the Asahi Shumbun newspaper said.
Speaking at a press conference at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, he said: “I believe it is our duty as survivors, as well as our responsibility to future generations, to always continue to strive toward a better Japan.”
Akihito, who was 11 when his father Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender following the dropping of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said he hoped Japan would work with neighbors and countries around the world to pursue peace.
“I ardently hope that Japan will be able to go forward in the world as a stable, peaceful and sound nation, in mutual support not only with neighboring countries but with as many of the world’s countries as possible,” he said.
Referring to his father by his posthumous name, said he would read the official record of his father’s rule to “serve as a reminder and help me cherish anew the memory of Emperor Showa, who lived through an era fraught with difficulties,” the newspaper reported.
The Palace said around 23,000 flocked to the Emperor’s birthday address, delivered from a balcony as he stood alongside Empress Michiko and other members of the royal household.
Turning to more recent events, Akihito expressed his sympathy to those who lost their lives in last week’s snowstorm that struck central and northern Japan – many of them elderly people who died while clearing the snow.
He told reporters: “I am more prone to tripping and falling myself, so I am always worried about elderly people removing snow from the roof.”
The Emperor touched on Japan’s achievements this year, such as the three Japanese-born scientists who won the Nobel Prize for physics.
Despite being stripped of its semi-divine status after the war, the Japanese throne is still deeply respected by most Japanese.
www.aa.com.tr/en
