EMPEROR’S VISIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21830, 28 September 1945, Page 3

EMPEROR’S VISIT

GEN. MACARTHUR

UNIQUE OCCASION

TALK LASTS 38 MINUTES (10 a.m.) NEW YORK. Sept 27. Emperor Hirohito arrived at General MacArthur’s headquarters for a conference at 10 a.m. on Thursday with a motor-cycle escort of five accompanying his motor car, reports the National Broadcasting Company’s correspondent. Hirohito remained with General MacArthur for 38 minutes in what is unofficiaUy described as a social call. The meeting occurred in the main living room of the American Embassy. Hirohito was accompanied by an interpreter. The Allied headquarters spokesman said that General MacArthur did not issue a summons to Hirohito, who had expressed a desire to call on the general. ,

The New York Times reports that on emerging from . the Embassy, the Emperor raised his topper to a group of American and Japanese reporters at the gate. Hirohito was one of the first Japanese leaders General MacArthur has seen. It was unique for the Son of Heaven to move out to see foreigners. There has been no comparable occurrence in 2800 years of the Divine Jinmu Dynasty’s reign. It was the first symbol to the Japanese that their Emmeror truly had been stripped of divine authority.

The correspondents were not forewarned of the time of General MacArthur's meeting with Hirohito. The headquarters’ spokesman explained: “We could not make arrangements for your presence because it would impair the dignity of the occasion.”