Checking the galley of the endnotes to "Persona," my biography of Yukio Mishima with Naoki Inose, I decided to augment a note on Japan's monarchical system. The tenno institution had a singular meaning for Mishima, and I set aside substantial space in the book for the subject.
The information I added was simple. It is that in the years on the heels of Japan's defeat in World War II, the Showa Emperor tried to express "profound regrets" for the calamity brought on during his reign. Full information on this came to light fully 14 years after his death.
Kyoko Kato, having published a biography of Michiji Tajima, was returning all the documents she had borrowed from the Tajima family, when she stumbled on an envelope she hadn't opened. Opening it, she saw two sheets of paper in which Tajima had written the Emperor's "apology." It was to be issued as an Imperial rescript but never was.