Shortly after his father’s broadcast, Akihito dutifully recorded that Japan had lost the war for two fundamental reasons: material backwardness, particularly in science, and individual selfishness. One on one, Japanese were superior to Americans, the earnest young heir apparent noted, but the Americans were superior when it came to working as a group. The key to the future thus lay in developing scientific prowess and learning to work harmoniously as a nation as the Americans did. So much for cultural canards about egoistic Westerners and group-oriented Japanese!27
