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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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030689
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03068900.022
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 46JAPAN"With Grief, We Bid You Farewell"An Emperor is laid to rest and so, too, is a turbulent era
Japan, once the world's enemy, now its envy. A ruler once a
god, in fact a slight, shy man fond of jellyfish but devoted to
imperial duty. The interment of Emperor Showa, called Hirohito in
his lifetime, bringing together admirers of Japan's modern ascent
with the rites of a hallowed but controversial past. The burial too
of an era that will lay to rest a history of barbaric militarism
and shattering defeat, freeing Japan to move into a new age of
unapologetic economic supremacy. All in all, it was as haunting and
impressive a funeral as the century is likely to see.
A steady, cold drizzle fell on the austere black hearse as it
moved slowly off the grounds of the Imperial Palace and onto the
streets of Tokyo. Thousands of Japanese watched its silent passage,
some bowing, some weeping. At Shinjuku Gyoen, an imperial garden,
the black-painted palanquin was hoisted by 51 members of the
Imperial Guard. Above, silk curtains draped the coffin made of
Japanese cypress. Within rested the body of Hirohito, the reluctant
monarch who on Jan. 7, at 87, succumbed to cancer after occupying
the Japanese throne for 62 years.
Somber drums banged, and flutes trilled a song of sadness.
Shinto priests, accompanied by veiled artifacts too sacred to be
seen, marched in solemn cadence. As 10,000 invited guests looked
on, Emperor Akihito bowed. Facing the coffin of the man who was
once revered by his people as a living divinity, Akihito intoned,
"Filled with profound grief, we bid you farewell."