The next target was kokutai, viewed as the fountainhead of Japan’s international aggression. But MacArthur and Fellers had decided that the Japanese could not govern themselves and needed an emperor. So they refrained from accusing Emperor Hirohito of war crimes. Nor did they attempt to dethrone him, instead simply demanding that the emperor renounce his claims to divinity. The emperor accepted. In his New Year’s statement, issued on January 1, 1946, he included the following passage: The ties between me and my people have always been formed by mutual trust and affection. They do not depend
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