HIROHITO EXPLAINS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 237, 5 September 1945, Page 6

HIROHITO EXPLAINS

| f 3.45 P.M. EDITION

2 CALL TO JAPANESE, | SURRENDER NOT MENTIONED, j (Nj.Z. 'Press Association.— Copyright.) | (Rjc. 1.35 p.m.) TOKIO, Sept. 4. ' : Hirohito in opening the extraordinary session of the Diet called on the' Japanese people "to surmount the manifold hardships and trials attending the termination ' of the war, to make manifest the innate glory of Japan's natioual policy, to win the confidence of the world and to devote ourselves to reconstruction in every held." He did not once use the word ''surrender", but referred throughout to "the termination of the war" and "the cessation of hostilities." Hirohito said he had been directed by: his Ministers of State to explain foreign and domestic conditions, and the course of- events that had led to his "extraordinary measure." The Lower House immediately adopted a reply expressing appreciation of the efforts exerted by the officers and men of the Imperial forces as well as the endeavours on the home front. The session lasted only 25 minutes. A member of the D:'et, Yukio Ozaki, aged 88, speaking before the session opened, declared that a complete overhaul of education was necessary to impound in the people's heads the laws of humanity and the difference between right, and wrong- Ozaki, who has long been critical o*f Japan's aggression, lashed out at the Diet itself as being far short of a constitutional Government. He added that in his opinion the atomic bomb was necessary to revert the people's existence to "past righteousness. Baron Raijiro Wakasuki, a member of the House of Peers and a former Japanese Premier, in a speech, said: "The Japanese Government cheated us at the outset of the war because it told us that we had more strength than we actually had. We wanted to fight the United States at the start of "the war. Everyone then believed in victory, but now we have no guns, no aircraft and no men so we must accept the Potsdam Declaration. We gave money and food for the war, but as the years passed we grew weaker. All we now have to show for these sacrifices is the shame of our defeat."

Hirohito motored to the Diet in a maroon coloured sedan. All the upper storeys along the route were curtained to prevent his subjects from looking down on the Emperor. Only Japanese flag's flew over Tokio.