In February, for instance, SCAP’s local intelligence people reported a rumor current in the Shimonoseki area to the effect that the emperor’s ancestors came from India, and that he therefore “was not Japanese.” As a result of this “revelation,” which was said to be verifiable by records in a temple in Shimane Prefecture, “some Shimonoseki residents have expressed their preference for a Japanese president rather than an Emperor of Indian ancestry.”8
