| On December 7, 1947 — 6 years [to the day] after the Pearl Harbor attack and 26 months after the end of the war — Emperor Shōwa Hirohito (April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) and his party arrived at atom-bombed Hiroshima. The streets had been specially cleaned and dusted for the occasion. Wearing a dark gray Homburg [hat] and clothes that in the opinion of an Australian observer might “have been deliberately chosen so as not to be too much on the smart side,” he seemed to “symbolize the down at the heels but determined look characteristic of present-day Japan.” Thousands of adults and children lined the long, meticulously planned route of his motorcade into the city. At the 1st stop, war orphans in black robes were on their knees waiting for him: “And standing beside them were a few mothers, their faces scarred with keloids, who held children in more or less serious stages of disfigurement. While the cameras clicked and turned and the crowd pushed in more and more excitedly, the Emperor listened, hat in hand, to a short explanation of what had happened to this group. He murmured a few “Is that so’s” and made as though to speak into a microphone that was being held out toward him. Then his lip trembled and with a short bow, he turned back to his car. At this point, the crowd went berserk. Shouting banzais at the top of their voices, the people rushed forward, their eyes shining and all their mask of unemotionalism wiped off their faces. [Imperial] Household officials and police were jostled and trampled on before he got back to his car. None of the crowd touched the Emperor, but many of them seemed happy just to touch the body of his car. Our party went ahead at the next stop, on to the improvised plaza where the mayor, the city officials and a crowd of 50,000 — a quarter of the city’s present population, were waiting to welcome him…Here again you could see people weeping with emotion…The Emperor mounted a rostrum…and once again was photographed from every angle. [Pulling a slip of paper from his pocket] he read a short simple speech…At the city hall he climbed up to the roof where the mayor was waiting with a map showing the city as it was, as it is, and as it is planned that it will be…A pair of field glasses rested on a purple handkerchief for the Emperor’s use, but he did not touch them. For the 1st time that day he was obviously overcome with nervousness and seemed anxious to get away.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1743.jpg |
| Image Size | 498.72 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2560 x 2014 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | December 7, 1947 |
| Location | |
| City | Hiroshima |
| State or Province | Hiroshima |
| Country | Japan |
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| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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