Chronology of Royal and Imperial Visits 1868—2018

FOLLOWING THE OUTBREAK of hostilities in December 1941, the Japanese invasion of Malaya was followed by the sinking of the two Bntish capital ships, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, and then by the surrender of Hong Kong on Chnstmas Day. As the war in the Far East unfolded, British resentment against Japan intensified. The humiliation of the Bntish surrender of Singapore in February 1942 could not easily be forgotten, but as confirmation was received of Japanese maltreatment of pnsoners of war and civilian internees, feelings against the Japanese emperor in whose name Japanese soldiers were fighting became angry and there were calls for him to be tned and punished once victory had been attained. No one in Bntain gave any real thought in 1945 to reviving the relationship between the Bntish royal and the Japanese impenal families and courts. The pnonty was survival and recovery. There could be no going back to the pre-war world. The balance of power had radically changed as a result ot the war. Monarchical systems were being superseded, and if monarchies were to survive in the post-war world they would have to change and adapt.

THE BRITISH MONARCHY

The Bntish monarchy had come out of the war with its populanty and prestige enhanced by the identification of King George VI and his queen with the war effort and the suffenngs of Bntish people in the blitz and in battles which had only been won through suffenng and sacnfice. But the old hierarchies and stuffy court system of the past could not be revived in their old form in an age of austerity and under the Labour government that came to power in August 1945. The Bntish loved pageantry, but there was no money left for ostentatious show. Changes were inevitable, but they took time to work their way through the system. Many changes did not come about until the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 on the death of King George VI. Pnnce Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in particular recognized that if the monarchy did not adapt to the post-war world its existence would be questioned. Royalty could not continue a gilded life cocooned from the realities facing working people. It had to show a human face.

As I wrote this account of my time studying abroad and reviewed the various memories which passed through my mind, I realized that I had come to grips with all sorts of issues while I had been at Oxford. Fond memories of each scene flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern. I faced one problem in writing this book; it was seven years since I had left Oxford. Although I could remember a good deal, there were limits to the extent to which I could recall individual events. However, fortunately while I was at Oxford, I had jotted down each day what I had done and had kept these notes. I was able to put these together with the memos made bymy police escort and through these I was able to recall my experiences. My diary in English, which I had written while I was staying with the Halls and which had been checked bymy English teachers, was also useful and the pamphlets and leaflets about places which I had visited onmy travels together with the tickets and other items, which I had kept, were a real treasure-trove. I had taken over two thousand photographs while I was at Oxford and these were very useful for reference. In addition, the official telegrams which had been sent at the time naturally provided background material. After I came home the occasional essays which I had written about my studies were also valuable memory aides and these have been incorporated into this book.

In September 1991, I revisited England to attend the Japan Festival and was delighted to be able to meet once again many of those who had helped me during my time as a student. I was much gratified to receive the award of an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. I revisited Merton where I met Dr Roberts, the warden, Dr Highfield and other dons of the college and was able to get together again with some of the students whom I had known and who were pursuing their researches. I was invited to a pub by the student I mentioned earlier who had been learning to play the shakuhachi. As I trod the familiar streets that evening I felt that Oxford had not changed and nostalgic memories welled up within Me.

Arrival at Merton

On 4 October I left Counsellor Fuji's house to spend two years at Merton; my feelings were a mixture of anticipation and anxiety about the new life I was beginning. Perhaps it was due to the nervousness which I felt, but the brief fifteen minutes it took by car from the Fujis’ house, where I had slept the previous night, to Merton seemed particularly long. The sounds of the vehicles passing along the cobbled streets, which always used to please me, sounded oppressive that day.

Sir Rex Richards, the warden, whom I had already met during my stay in London, was there to greet me in front of the college gates. I was immediately asked, as is the custom at Oxford, to sign the register of new students which was presented to me at the porter's lodge. I was so nervous that my hand holding the pen shook and when I wrote my name Naruhito in roman letters my writing looked quite awful. This was the first official action of my stay at Oxford.

Having signed the register and received the key of my room the warden introduced me to two other students. One of them was the chairman of the Middle Common Room to which, as a graduate student, I would belong. The other was the chairman of the Junior Common Room, to which undergraduates belong. The chairman of the Middle Common Room was an American called J. He was tall and, at close range, his face, on which a magnificent beard sprouted, looked rather off-putting. He was a very gloomy-looking person, but his eyes showed that he was also gentle and kind. On the other hand, the chairman of the Junior Common Room was an English girl called M who had a very pretty face.

In the Front Quad I met representatives of the English and Japanese media. I was asked various questions by the representative of a local radio station, but the only question I can now remember was ‘Do you want to join in all student activities including going to the pub?’ I replied in words which I intended to mean that I probably would want to do so. Sir Rex interposed and said: ‘As the Prince has only just arrived and is nervous, the questioning should now stop’ and the meeting with the media was brought to a close.

In the mornings

My day at Oxford started with breakfast in hall which began at 8.15. There were far fewer students at breakfast in hall than at lunch or dinner. Usually, only around twenty turned up at breakfast so that even if I was a bit late I could easily find a seat and did not have to worry that there would be nothing left. Toast and an egg dish were always on the menu plus, varying from day to day, ham, bacon or sausage etc; it was all self-service. Coffee and tea were, of course, also available. Interestingly, perhaps because of the old religious custom of serving fish on fast days, kippers were served on Fridays. I tried a kipper once but found it difficult to remove the bones and I did not care for the taste. My breakfast generally consisted of a slice of toast, some cereal, such as corn flakes, and tea. When there were boiled eggs on the menu I usually took one. Tea and coffee were obtained from urns by the door. The tea was very strong and the same colour as the coffee. The dining hall was only open for breakfast for half an hour. Anyone who overslept could, however, get a late breakfast from the undergraduates’ bar.

After breakfast I used to go to the college office where, if I was in for lunch and dinner, I put my name in the book. If by chance one forgot to do this and was stopped by the steward at the door of the dining hall one was usually allowed in. At dinner on Wednesdays and Fridays Merton students could bring up to three guests and entertain them to dinner in the first floor lobby where the guest table was situated. This was a popular place to dine as the food at the guest table was a good deal better than in hall. On mornings when bookings were taken for the guest table during the following week there was usually a long queue of students wanting to register, but many of them had to put their names on the waiting list. There were, however, generally some cancellations and they might be lucky in securing places.

Why I decided to do research on the Thames as a highway

Ihave described various aspects of my life at Oxford, but my research was, of course, the most important part of my life there. My two years at Oxford were so precious to me that I did wonder if it would be a waste of time to spend them on the sort of research which I could do in Japan. However, looking back I realize that my research contributed significantly to my experience at Oxford. It certainly enabled me to have many valuable experiences, meet many people and to get the feel of what was involved in research. The theme of my research at Oxford was transport on the river Thames in the eighteenth century. I should first like to explain how I came to study this subject.

From the time when I was a child I had been interested in roads as a means of transportation. In my position I could not go outside the gates whenever I wanted to, but when I wandered along the paths in the grounds of the Akasaka palace, I felt that I was making a journey into a part of the world I did not know at all. For me these paths played an important role as a means of connecting me with the unknown world. It was, I think, when I had only just started school that I found, when wandering around the Akasaka palace grounds, a sign which read ‘ŌshūKaidō’. The sign was a modern one, but I was excited when I learnt that according to old maps and experts on the subject an old highway had indeed passed through the palace grounds during the Kamakura period (1192–1333). Then in my first year at high school when I was reading with my mother Bashō’s Oku no Hosomichi I became even more interested than I had been before in travels and in transport. Perhaps for this reason my main interest during my first two years at elementary school was learning about the road system and the posting stations along the highways in Edo Japan.

Arrival in London

I arrived at London's Heathrow airport before dawn on 21 June 1983. I do not remember much about what I could see of London from the aircraft, perhaps because I was sleepy and nervous. The sky in the foreign country in which I was to live for two years looked dull and cloudy and although it was supposed to be summer it felt unexpectedly chilly. I was greeted by Ambassador Hirahara, Mr Elliott, the head of the Far Eastern Department at the British Foreign Office, and one of my cousins Mr Mibu Motohiro who was working in Japan Airline's London Office, and others. After a few minutes in an airport room I was taken by car to the ambassador's residence where I was to stay for ten days.

This was not my first visit to London. I had spent a short time there on my return from visits to Belgium and Spain in 1976. Because I was changing planes I had little time to see London and my memory of that visit was limited to seeing Windsor Castle and the river Thames flowing past, and eating roast beef at a nearby restaurant. I was impressed by Windsor Castle but I was not much impressed by the Thames or the taste of the roast beef. I had a clear memory of looking at the Thames while crossing over it on an old bridge and seeing rubbish floating in dirty water. The taste of the roast beef seemed plain and nothing special.

Now seven years later, as I abandoned myself to the comfortable motion of a motor car, I felt that the curtain was quietly lifting and that I was about to begin an unprecedented two-year stay in a foreign country and the drama of an unknown yet exciting experience as a foreign student. Looking out of the car windows I thought that London had a solemn atmosphere and that the buildings looked impressive and serene. The environment of the Ambassador's residence was tranquil and impressed me very favourably. After taking a rest in the morning I went out again in the afternoon for a drive around the city. This gave me a second chance to see the Thames.