Photo/Illutration Emperor Akihito, center left, and Empress Michiko visit the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China in suburban Beijing on Oct. 24, 1992. (Pool)

Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989), posthumously known as Emperor Showa, was said to have wished to visit China.

In his diary, Sukemasa Irie (1905-1985), who served as the grand chamberlain from 1969 to 1985, quoted Hirohito as saying in his old age, “If I could go to China.”

I wonder how Hirohito felt at the time.

It was not until 1992 that his wish was posthumously realized by his son, Akihito, who is currently referred to as the emperor emeritus.

To this day, the trip remains the one and only visit to China by a Japanese emperor.

In Beijing, Akihito touched on Japan’s war with China, describing it as an “unfortunate period in which my country inflicted great suffering on the people of China.”

Considering the nature of Japan’s relationship with its far bigger neighbor, Akihito’s words were extremely significant.

Last week, the government released diplomatic documents from that period. Reading the decoded texts, I was quite surprised to learn how hard Japanese diplomats and other officials worked to realize Akihito’s trip to China.

They applied pressure on news organizations in hopes of overcoming opposing opinions, such as that the emperor should go to South Korea before China, or the issue of the Senkaku Islands.

I can well appreciate why the Foreign Ministry positioned Akihito’s China visit as a gesture to signify the start of a new postwar relationship between the two countries and use it as a trump card in diplomatic negotiations.

However, disputes over different perceptions of history continued to flare up, and there was no denying that the bilateral relations did not develop as hoped.

I have no desire to casually criticize the past only from today’s viewpoint. The important thing is to learn something from history.

British historian E. H. Carr (1892-1982) famously noted that history is a dialogue between the present and the past.

No Japanese emperor has visited South Korea yet. Had Akihito not gone to China in 1992, what would have happened? Would there have been no second chance?

I think anew of the weight of the start of the new postwar Japan-China relations.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 27

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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