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BBC's 'ugly' portrayal of Hirohito angers Japan
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo (telegraph.co.uk)
Updated: 2005-02-18 16:44
The BBC has come under attack in Japan for "a malicious, prejudiced and ugly"
portrayal of Emperor Hirohito in a forthcoming edition of Timewatch.
The docu-drama will show the emperor as having "a physical handicap and a
warped personality" says the magazine Shukan Shincho, which has obtained an
early version of the script. It says that the programme should not be broadcast.
Emperor Hirohito | The
magazine expresses astonishment at the script, citing Japanese historians who
dispute the implication that Hirohito was an active war leader who escaped
justice, rather than a powerless figurehead.
He was considered a living god in Japan until the Second World War defeat. Hirohito
remains beyond criticism in Japan amid a widespread refusal to accept that he
bears at least some moral responsibility for wartime suffering.
The BBC approached Yasuhiro Nakasone, the prime minister from 1982 to 1987 at
the end of Hirohito's reign, but his secretary said he rejected the BBC without
consulting Mr Nakasone after seeing the script. "The contents were so clearly
intended to make a villain of the emperor," the secretary explained.
A BBC spokesman said: "The programme is in the very early stages of filming.
Consequently, scripts will go through a number of drafts.
"It is not possible to make a full or informed judgment as it will not be
completed for several months. It is not the intention of the BBC to offend
Japanese people."
Historians may also question the idea of a physically handicapped Hirohito,
though the precise handicap is not specified.
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