The Realm of the Dying Emperor: Modern Japanese People Take the Emperor's Death Differently

JaeWoo Chang IUB 01/21/2014 People have different values by what they experiences. More specifically, the values can be differed by time, education, and society. The book, “The realm of the Dying Emperor”, shows that how modern Japanese people take the emperor’s death differently. The author experienced the death of emperor in 1989. I assume that many of her ages or higher will admire his death, because they’ve lived economically glorious time the emperor made. Also, the emperor hadn’t been exposed by media or people, which makes more deific of him. If the emperor Hirohito was more often exposed by people like the emperor Akihito, the emperor Hirohito’s divine character might be weaken just like todays celebrities gossips. After he declared “he is just a human, not a god” and several surgeries, people started to think he is not mighty like a god. And the time goes by, the emperor’s mighty character is getting weaken, and the younger generations don’t take it seriously like previous generations did. The values also affected by one’s experiences and education. Field thought the right-wing extremists are terrifying. The right-wing people might have right-wing tendency education from their right- wing families or schools. They might think that person who doesn’t kneeling and touching their heads in grief about the emperor’s death (p.24) is weird and unnatural. In this sense, different societies could affect people’s values too. Since the author was exposed by Americanized society, she wouldn’t take up a lamentation for the emperor’s death. The author doesn’t feel that way like right-wing people think, because she had different society and experiences. The newspaper in Okinawa didn’t use the word “hogyo” for the emperor’s death. Since Okinawa state has historically unfavorable relation with the emperor, the people from Okinawa society could not agree with the sympathy of the emperor’s death.