Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

by John W. Dower

After the famous photograph of the general and the emperor appeared, Hirohito even emerged as the butt of the most salacious riddle of the occupation period. This rested on a hitherto unmentionable pun: the fact that the imperial “We”—pronounced chin—was a homonym to a slang word for penis (or “prick”). Why was General MacArthur the belly button (heso) of Japan? Because, the rude joke went, he was above the prick/emperor.7