Harmony and hierarchy were valued over contention and individuality, and the new symbol-emperor still embodied the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century invention of a “Yamato” identity that excluded Koreans, Formosans, Chinese, Caucasians—aliens of whatever ethnic origin—from becoming “Japanese.” Despite the formal separation of church and state, the emperor also remained high priest of the indigenous Shinto religion, conducting esoteric rites in the palace and reporting to his divine ancestors at the great Ise shrine. All of this left him as the supreme icon of genetic separateness and
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