Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, said during his final years that he did not wish to live much longer as he would only experience more anguish at sad personal events and being blamed for his role in wars Japan fought during his reign, according to the diary of a close aide newly seen by Kyodo News.
The diary kept by late Chamberlain Shinobu Kobayashi, details of which were made public Wednesday, reveals that the aging Emperor was haunted by talk of his wartime responsibility following the Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
"There is no point in living a longer life by reducing my workload. It would only increase my chances of seeing or hearing things that are agonizing," the Emperor was quoted as saying in a diary entry dated April 7, 1987. The Emperor, who died in 1989, was 85 at the time.