Japan's war 'contrary to emperor's wishes': son

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's Emperor Akihito, celebrating 20 years on the throne, offered a rare defence of his father's wartime record, saying Japanese aggression had been contrary to his wishes.

The 75-year-old said his father Hirohito had opposed Japan's march to war, an unusual comment on the emperor who at the time was considered divine by his people but seen as an aggressor by the Allied powers.

Akihito said that his father, posthumously called Emperor Showa in Japan after the name of his 1926-89 era, had as crown prince visited the site of the World War I battlefield of Verdun.

"He had taken to heart the importance of maintaining peace," Akihito said. "It is my perception that the events that led to war must have been contrary to what he would have wished."

Historians are divided on whether the emperor was responsible for Japan's aggression before and during WWII or whether he was the puppet of military and political leaders.

Hirohito was not tried at the Tokyo war tribunal that sentenced to death seven military and government leaders, including wartime premier Hideki Tojo.

Akihito was speaking to the media last week, but his comments were embargoed for publication until the anniversary Thursday of his accession to the Chrysanthemum throne, in line with usual imperial household practice.

Akihito, who under the post-war constitution serves a largely ceremonial function and is barred from commenting on politics, said the events during his father's era "taught us many lessons".

"I believe it is essential for us to learn from the historical facts and prepare ourselves for the future," he said.

Many Asian countries still hold bitter memories of Japan's past aggression and have complained that Japan has white-washed its past in school textbooks.

Japan's centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took power in September, has pledged stronger ties with Asia and said he and his cabinet ministers will not visit Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni war shrine.

Akihito, who turns 76 next month, also said he worried that Japan's society was rapidly ageing and its economy weakening, but said he hoped Japanese people would cooperate to overcome the difficulties.

Empress Michiko, 75, at the same press conference, said she felt it was "a little disappointing that an ageing society is considered only as a problem".

"I hope we will not lose our habit of congratulating together those who reach the venerable ages of 90, 100, or more," she said.

Akihito's coronation ceremony was held on November 12, 1990, after the end of the mourning period for Hirohito.

Some 50,000 people were expected to gather later for privately organised commemorative events near the moated palace in central Tokyo for traditional and modern music performances.