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...
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