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Letter from Japan: Grounds for Removal
Why Tokyo traffic is a royal pain
By PETER McKILLOP
December 10, 1999 Web posted at 7 a.m. Hong Kong time, 6 p.m. EDT
Caught in downtown Tokyo traffic. Again. Staring at a big reason why: the Emperor's Imperial Palace. Closed to mere mortals, the palace has become the world's greatest traffic obstacle. Trucks, cars and motor scooters must inch around its walled and moated perimeters rather than take the logical direct route through palace grounds. Subways too are not allowed to tunnel underneath this sacred spot.
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But hold on. The ground is no longer sacred. After World War II, the United States stripped the Emperor's father Hirohito of his god-hood and made him yet another mere constitutional-monarch mortal.
They should have also stripped him of his beloved palace grounds. Just how Supreme Allied Commander General Douglas MacArthur dealt with Emperor continues to be debated by scholars of Japan. Personally, whether he was a war criminal no longer interests me. My problem with MacArthur is why did he not make the Imperial Palace into Tokyo's Central Park.
No modern monarchy denies access to prime land in the middle of congested urban areas--at least not any more. Britain's royals allow their subjects to nearly reach the gates of their urban palaces. China's Forbidden City is no longer forbidden. Thailand's Grand Palace is also a tourist site (the King himself lives in north Bangkok). So what gives with Japan?
A growing number of Japanese wonder as well. As the royalty's core constituents die off, a younger generation is supremely apathetic to this anachronistic institution. A growing number are even resentful that this rather ordinary family is allowed so many perks, privileges and palaces. Heck, it can't even sire a replacement Emperor!
It's particularly irritating when sitting in a traffic jam. You know that just inches away from the fumes, frustration and chaos of Tokyo traffic are hundreds of hectares of prime pastoral parkland available only to those invited by the Imperial Household Agency.
I say it is time for compromise. Sure, it may be a bit much to ask the Emperor to give back both his Tokyo palaces. Let him keep the Akasaka Palace with its faux Buckingham Palace guesthouse for foreign leaders. But in a millennium gift to the people of Japan, he should open the grounds surrounding the Imperial Palace to the populist rabble who now can only gaze through the polluted haze at land that should be theirs to use.
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