Pretender

The Japanese have a maxim: "Just as there is but one sun in heaven, so there is but one emperor on earth." Six centuries ago the maxim was rudely shattered when rival feudal lords supported a "Southern Emperor" named Go-Daigo and a "Northern Emperor" named Kogon (both members of the imperial family). The issue was threshed out in a 50-year "War of the Chrysanthemums." Finally Go-Daigo's line gave up the sacred symbols of authority--jewel, mirror, sword--to Kogon's line. Since then, in the misty eye of Japanese history, the imperial descent has been strictly legitimate.

Last week General Douglas MacArthur suddenly discovered that the War of the Chrysanthemums still smoldered. To the Allied Commander from one Hiromichi Kumazawa, self-styled "Emperor" and 19th direct lineal descendant of Go-Daigo, came a petition requesting a full and impartial investigation of his claim to be Japan's rightful sovereign. To the pretender's "secret hideout" went LIFE Correspondent Richard E. Lauterbach. His report:

" 'Emperor' Hiromichi (meaning Way of the Great Heart) is 56, unwrinkled, smooth-shaven from crown to chin except for a thin, reddish mustache. He lives incognito as a shopkeeper in the back room of a shabby general store on the outskirts of a bombed-out city. On his black kimono he wears the 16-petaled chrysanthemum forbidden to any but the Emperor of Japan. On his feet are a farmer's wooden geta. He is a devout Buddhist.

" 'The reigning imperial household,' said Hiromichi, 'has aggressed on me and my rights and on the rest of the world. ... I consider Hirohito a war criminal. MacArthur is heaven's messenger to Japan. . . . My father, who died in 1915, left a will to exert every effort to realize the family's true place. Until his wish is carried out . . . my father will have no grave, no altar.'

"Suddenly Hiromichi wept. His aide bowed and presented me with a parchment on which the master had written a poem. Entitled World Brotherhood, it read:

In the land of Nippon dust and slime are piled up.

A messenger of heaven has descended to sweep and cleanse."

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