After Hirohito, the Big Questions Remains By Urban C. Lehner 9 January 1989 The Wall Street Journal (Copyright (c) 1989, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.) TOKYO -- Emperor Hirohito's death Saturday at age 87 marks the symbolic end of Japan's "catching-up-with-the-West" phase. For the 120 years spanning the past three imperial reigns, Japan has devoted itself single-mindedly to building a strong nation -- first to avoid colonization, later in pursuit of empire, and finally to rebuild a war-torn land. But whatever the motivation, the objective remained the same: to propel Japan into the uppermost ranks of the world's nations. Under the Emperors Meiji, Taisho and now the departed Hirohito (or Showa, the name of his era), Japan has caught up beyond its wildest imagination. The question for the era of Emperor Akihito is, now what? To what ends will Japan use its growing wealth and political influence? "We've found it easy to make good cars and good steel," says Naohiro Amaya, a former top official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. "What kind of values are we going to make? What role will we play?" Answering such questions is a matter for the Japanese people and their elected officials, of course. In accordance with both the constitution and historical custom, the emperor reigns but does not rule. Still, the emperor traditionally is the spiritual symbol of the Japanese people, and in a subtle way Emperor Akihito will help set the tone for the years to come. And help is needed. As Mr. Amaya notes, neither the Japanese people nor their politicians seem very interested in tackling the big questions. Japan's elite bureaucrats seem preoccupied with reacting to events. "Their way of thinking is very passive," Mr. Amaya complains. Overseas, fears are growing that Japan will choose the course of remilitarization. The fears, which start with the observation that no country in history has held so much economic power without eventually becoming a military power, are fed by disturbing trends in Tokyo. Right-wing extremist groups, though a fringe phenomenon, are enjoying a resurgence. Bureaucrats are censoring from history textbooks suggestions of Japanese culpability in World War II. Ultranationalists are gloating that the new era will see the scrapping of Japan's war -- renouncing constitution and the restoration of the emperor to his prewar status as a god. Worrisome as these trends are, they need to be viewed in perspective. The Japanese people are more realistic about the need for self-defense than they were in the past, but there is little public support for making Japan a military power. The new emperor is by all accounts a true believer in liberal democracy who would be mortified by the prospect of deification. As disturbing as anything happening in Japan today is the tendency on the part of some politicians and intellectuals in the U.S. to assume that Japan wants to push the U.S. around. But to mistake Japan's challenge to U.S. economic leadership for enmity, to confuse Japan's desire for a bigger role in the world with imperialist lust, is to risk creating self-fulfilling prophecies. More troubling than any threat of militarism is Japan's persistent tendency to separate itself from the world. Despite all the talk about internationalization, Japanese society continues to teach its children tired, we're-a-unique-race theories. As long as the Japanese continue to divide humanity into two categories -- Japanese and all others -- they will have trouble relating to the rest of the world, and vice versa. Combine this racial exclusivity with a strong tendency to rank everything hierarchically, and it's only a short leap from "the Japanese are a unique race" to "the Japanese are a superior race." It is in this context, rather than as a prelude to a resurgence of 1930s-style militarism, that Japanese attempts to rewrite World War II history are most troubling. By prettifying the past, the Japanese subliminally are painting a picture of themselves as a race apart. This revisionism is of a piece with growing Japanese impatience with criticism from abroad. The Japanese have proved again and again in the economic sphere that they are a practical people, capable of sizing up reality objectively and dealing with it as it is. Ideally in the era of Emperor Akihito, they will focus this same clear vision on social, political and historical reality. The names of the imperial eras are picked to signify desirable abstractions; Showa, for example, means "enlightened peace." Emperor Akihito's new era has been named Heisei, or "achievement of universal peace." It was probably too much to ask for it to have been called something like "straight shooting," yet if the new emperor could impart a little of that to his times he would do his people and the world an enormous favor. A good place to start would be the history of the late emperor. In the year following Emperor Hirohito's death, the Japanese media have extravagant plans to lavish attention on the history of the Showa era. It is natural that coverage will stress the good aspects, of which there were many. Emperor Hirohito was a decent man of basically democratic instincts who cared deeply about his people. In August 1945, when his advisers were divided and strong voices were demanding a fight to the finish, he intervened to end the war. Let us hope, though, that the media don't forget to remind people of Emperor Hirohito's role in the events leading up to the war. Historians may long debate the exact nature and extent of that role, and how much he might have accomplished. But he knew in fair detail what the militarists in his government were planning and did not stop them. It will be unfortunate if the Japanese press misses the chance to present a full and balanced picture of the Showa era -- but if it does, it won't necessarily mean that Japan is turning militaristic. More than anything, we need an era of clear seeing to get the danger points straight. The danger overseas is that foreigners will become obsessed with resurgent militarism in Japan when the challenge that country in fact presents is economic and technological. The danger in Japan is not that the emperor will again be regarded as divine; it is that the Japanese people somehow will come to regard themselves as divine. --- Mr. Lehner is the Journal's Tokyo bureau chief. Dow Jones & Company .