Hirohito meets more hostility

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32734, 11 October 1971, Page 13

Hirohito meets more hostility

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) AMSTERDAM, October 10. Dutch demonstrators gave Emperor Hirohito the most hostile reception of his European tour yesterday when he ended his stay in the Netherlands with a private visit to Amsterdam.

The Emperor was booed and jeered at, and burning Japanese flags were flung at his car. Youths, shouting “Murderer!” rushed at his bullet-proof vehicle. Hostile slogans were daubed on walls throughout the picturesque canal city.

On the first day of Emperor Hirohito’s visit to the Netherlands, the windscreen of his limousine was shattered near The Hague by an unidentified man who flung a thermos flask at it.

The only spot of humour in an otherwise chilly visit came when the Emperor visited the hippopotamus house of Amsterdam Zoo. Two hefty specimens, Jan and Tanja, were brought out to entertain him, and the Emperor was provided with hunks of bread and raw vegetables to feed them. He threw the food into the enclosure, but it was ignored, and Jan proceeded to make love to Tanja. Officials broke into embarrassed grins, and the Emperor himself gave an enigmatic smile. By and large, the Dutch seemed either indifferent or hostile to the two-day visit by the Emperor and Empress. Continuing the first tour abroad by a Japanese ruler, the Emperor, who is 70, and his retinue of 34, travelled to Switzerland today for a single day of rest before going on to West Germany. In, West Berlin yesterday,

about 1200 young Left-wing-ers, among them Japanese students, protested against “Japanese imperialism” and the forthcoming visit of Emperor Hirohito. The Emperor will not visit West Berlin. In Amsterdam—which the Emperor toured 50 years ago when he was Crown Prince —the imperial party went from the zoo to the world famous Rijks Museum, where a crowd of several hundred, many wearing black armbands, stood outside and chorused: “Hirohito, go, go!” After the visit to Amsterdam, which has a large number of residents who suffered in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War, the imperial motorcade went to Queen Juliana's palace near Utrecht for lunch with the Queen. The Queen’s husband, Prince Bernhard, was absent; he is now in West Germany with Dutch troops. The Dutch Prime Minister (Mr Biesheuvel) yesterday scotched rumours that other motives might have explained his absence, saying that the Prince’s plans were made more than a year ago. Ceremony in Switzerland has been cut to a minimum, and the Emperor’s only official engagement will be a 20-minute visit to the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Empress Nagako is president of the Japanese Red Cross.