Emperor Quotes
Austin renounced his American citizenship and committed himself to Mexico where he was recruiting American emigrants for settlement in what is now Texas as a Mexican territory. Later, he grew disillusioned with the Mexican government and chose Texas independence.
Although Emperor Hirohito had the status of a God, and his Prime Minister and Chief of the Military testified that they had never disobeyed the Emperor {587278}, there was a thorough attempt to whitewash the Emperor’s role—{587279}. Few Japanese, even years later would suggest that Hirohito might bear some personal responsibility. The Mayor was one of the few who made the statement of the obvious. He received 181 death threats and he was shot shortly thereafter by a right wing supporter of the Emperor’s.
Other war criminals had committed suicide in conformity with the Japanese custom. But Tojo stayed alive so that he could take the responsibility from the Emperor Herohito who many Americans wanted tried for his actions and inactions during the war. But Tojo made an error. At the beginning of his trial he testified that he always obeyed the Emperor even though he was the Prime Minister and the head of government. Therefore, the Emperor was guilty of those crimes he had discussed with Tojo and the cabinet. Later, he was persuaded to change his testimony and said that he led the country to war and the Emperor wanted peace, a statement that few believed. See {587278}. While the Emperor had committed war crimes General MacArthur believed that the Emperor left in place and unpunished would make it easier to govern Japan, than if he were tried and punished. However, he and his staff fabricated a report to exonerate the Emperor rather than make his recommendation to his superiors and the President so they could either accept his view or not. He was a unilateralist in the administrative sense of the word. See {587279} for additional material on the Emperor’s guilt.
The basic treaty sold some of Ethiopia’s colonial territory (Eritrea and Tigray) to Italy in exchange for arms. Italy had tried to conquer the area but lost 500 men in the Battle of Dogali. However, after this peace treaty, Italy maintained that Article 17 of the treaty gave them the right to declare Ethiopia an Italian Protectorate which they did. However, there were two different versions of the treaty that the Italians had drawn up—one in Italian, the other in Aramaic. Britain, Belgium and Germany supported Italy; France, Turkey and Russia supported Ethiopia. Menelik then, to make matters clear, repudiated the treaty in 1893. Italy send an invasion force that was soundly thrashed by the Ethiopians setting the stage for the Italian attack on Ethiopia in World War II years later. Parties to International treaties thereafter have paid close attention to the different language versions.
