Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Asian emperors connect in Beijing Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 14:37:03 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Asian emperors connect in Beijing \BY REUTERS \DT BEIJING BEIJING (Reuters) - Japanese Emperor Akihito yesterday met with the 86-year-old brother of China's last emperor - the man who was part of Japan's grand wartime plan to expand a puppet empire in northeast China. Pu Jie, wearing a dark high-collared Mao suit in the style of Communist Chinese bureaucrats, bowed when he greeted Akihito, the first Japanese monarch ever to visit China. "I said today is one of the happiest days for the Chinese people," Pu Jie told reporters. Schooled in Japan and married to a member of its aristocracy, Pu Jie became heir apparent to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in northeast China, where his childless brother Pu Yi was installed as "emperor" in 1935. Manchukuo crumbled when Japan was beaten at the end of World War II. The two brothers were taken prisoner as traitors to China's new Communist government and "re-educated" before their release in 1959. Pu Yi died of cancer in 1967. Emperor Akihito, 58, and Pu Jie, who have met before in Tokyo, talked about Beijing's brisk fall weather and the need to wear extra clothing. Earlier in the day, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko toured Beijing's Forbidden City, home to Pu Yi before he was toppled from his throne in 1911. Chinese plainclothes security police kept close check on stragglers surrounding the imperial party. Security has been tight throughout the visit, the first by a Japanese emperor in 2,000 years of contact between the two countries. The imperial party left Beijing yesterday afternoon for Xian, China's ancient capital. Chinese viewers were reminded last night of their country's suffering at the hands of Japan's imperial troops by a program on state television depicting Japanese soldiers bayoneting prisoners of war they had hung upside down. Chinese activists had demanded that Emperor Akihito apologize for Japan's wartime atrocities in China. No formal apology was made, but the emperor did say Friday that he deeply deplored the suffering inflicted on China by his people. The emperor and empress will travel from Xian to Shanghai, China's biggest city, before returning to Tokyo on Wednesday. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM