For the Day of Independence, Emperor Hirohito composed a special poem:
Winter's winds have died away. The long-awaited spring is here. Cherry blossoms are blooming full
today. Now is the nation's springtime.
Blinking in the unfamiliar glare of political freedom, the Japanese torpidly responded to their long-awaited, cherry-blossomed independence. But within three days, they were jarred fully awake. Most rudely jarred were some 300,000 workaday Japanese who poured past the willows and oaks of Tokyo's huge Meiji Park in a peaceful May Day demonstration. In matters of minutes, they were captives of the...
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