THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
THUR5DAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009
NEWS
9A
INTERNATIONAL
Emperor of Japan marks 20th anniversary of reign
BY ERICTALMADGE
Associated Press
TOKYO — Japan's Emperor Akihito, marking the 20th anniversary of his coronation Thursday, says he is concerned young people are forgetting their history.
Akihito said Japan must not forget its past — and especially the turbulent years his father, the late Emperor Hirohito, was on the throne — if it is to learn from its mistakes.
"What worries me most is that the history of the past will gradually be forgotten," the 75-year-old monarch said at a brief news conference before Thursday's anniversary. He said it was regrettable Hirohito will be remembered by history for World War II and Japan's military advances into Asia prior to its defeat in 1945.
"The reign of my father began at a very difficult time," he said, noting that Japan invaded Manchuria six years after Hirohito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne. "There are many lessons that we can learn from the 60-some years
"He viscerally knew the importance of peace," Akhito said.
Japan has often been criticized by its neighbors — who bore the brunt of Japanese colonialism — for whitewashing the country's role in World War II in its school textbooks. Although Akihito has visited China, he has yet to travel to South Korea, largely because of lingering animosities over the war.
Until Japan's surrender, Hirohito was officially considered a living
god and loyalty to the throne was used to rally the nation behind the war, though historians generally agree that it was more often the generals, admirals and politicians who made the major decisions
that set the country's disastrous course.
Over the past 20 years, Akhipo and his wife, Empress Michiko,
have grown quietly into their roles as ceremonial symbols of the nation, a definition of the Japanese monarchs imposed by U.S. military leaders during the Japanese occupation.
"What worries me most is that the history of the past will gradually be forgotten."
Akithoi's primary role is that of a figurehead. He presides over rituals at the palace shrines, gives out awards, meets foreign dignitaries and swears in new Cabinets.
His public comments are famously circumspspect, avoiding subjects that might have political implications, and off-the-cuff
AKIHITO Emperor of Japan
remarks are almost unheard of. The questions he answered at the pre-anniversary news conference were submitted to the palace well in advance, and he had written answers prepared.
Akihito was coronated nearly a year after Hirohito died
on Jan. 7, 1989 because the country was officially in mourning.
Japan's Empress Akhito, center, greets guests during the annual imperial imperial garden party at Akasai Imperial Garden in Tokyo Oct. 22 Akihito, 75, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the world's oldest heraldic monarchy, monarcy.
ASSOCIATED PRES
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL
Haiti's prime minister inaugurated
Sister Catherine Bitzer holds a document at the Diocese of St. Augustine in St. Augustine, Fla. Oct. 4. The records are about 415 years old.
BY JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's new prime minister was inaugurated Wednesday and promised to attract more investment and create jobs, while forging good relations with lawmakers who have ousted two heads of government in as many years.
Jean-Max Bellerive, the sixth person to hold the post since 2004 in the politically unstable Caribbean nation, said he will work closely with lawmakers in Haiti's Parliament.
too closely to international development plans.
The Parliament recently fired his predecessor in part for sticking
"We will take care of putting (members of Parliament) more in accordance with what we are doing." Bellerive told The Associated Press as the just-fired former prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, drove away from the hilltop mansion that is now Bellerive's headquarters.
"It's the same program, basically. We have the same priorities" as the previous government, he said.
Bellerive, 51, officially took power as Haiti's No. 2 in Wednesday ceremonies. He has served in a wide variety of Haitian administrations, including those
of former populist President Jean Bertrand Aristide and the military junta that once ousted Aristide.
Bellerie was sworn in by President Rene Preval, who praised an orderly transition that took little more than 12 days from the ouster of one prime minister to the swearing-in of her replacement.
But Bellerive said he intends to see those plans through—and, in fact, speed some investment deals along by continuing in his previous role as minister of planning and external cooperation.
"The only way that we are going to change Haiti is through private investment, through creating jobs in Haiti," he told reporters.
Oldest US city preserves ancient Catholic records
BY RON WORD Associated Press
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Sister Catherine Bitzer slowly opened a file box and carefully removed a brittle page, scarred by years of neglectful storage, mold and insects. At 415 years old, the marriage record written by a Roman Catholic priest is still readable and is one of the oldest known European records from the United States.
It's among thousands of artifacts detailing the lives of the Spanish soldiers, missionaries and merchants who settled St. Augustine, the nation's oldest permanent city. The church kept the only official records, a role that today is filled by government.
After being scattered from Florida and surviving destruction for centuries, they are now safe in a newly renovated waterproof, fireproof and climate-controlled building at the Diocese of St. Augustine, said Bitzer, the archivist of the diocese.
Michael Gannon, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Florida, calls the archives "a pocketful of miracles."
He tracked down most of the documents, which had traveled to Cuba, back to St. Augustine and then Notre Dame, Ind.
The earliest documents detail the births, confirmations, marriages and deaths of the Spanish residents in St. Augustine from 1594 to 1763, when the British took over Florida.
Dated Jan. 24, 1594, and handwritten by Father Diego Escobar de Sambrana, the record held by Bitzer details the marriage of soldier Gabriel Hernandez to Catalina de Valdes in St. Augustine, some 26 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
Other treasures in the archives include the records, headboard,
and a piece of the coffin belonging to Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the Spanish Navy admiral who founded St. Augustine in 1565.
There are also records of the diocese's nine bishops and the Spanish colonial government, and microfilm of records on explorations, the attacks of English and French corsairs, the development of slavery and reports on Indian customs and languages.
Missing from the collection are the documents from the first 29 years of Catholic life in St. Augustine. Gannon believes they may have been destroyed by Sir Francis Drake, the English privateer, who sacked the town in 1586.
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