In 1983, Shattered God (Kudakareta Kami), a unique and incisive critique of the emperor’s abrupt transformation from god to mortal, from supreme symbol of a holy war to ambiguous symbol of “democracy,” was published. Its author, Watanabe Kiyoshi, had been an ex-serviceman with little formal education when he wrote this journal-diary covering the period from September 1945 to April 1946. Watanabe turned twenty years old that November, but it would be erroneous to say that he celebrated his birthday. He was a man consumed by rage at having been betrayed by his sovereign.42