Hirohito Rests After Surgery on Intestine

Emperor Hirohito was in stable condition Tuesday after undergoing surgery for an intestinal blockage, his doctors reported.

Doctors said that the 86-year-old Japanese emperor, the world’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch, suffered from an inflamed pancreas. A bypass operation was performed to keep a hard, egg-sized object from pressing on the upper part of his small intestine.

Dr. Yasuhiko Morioka, head of the team that operated on the monarch at the Imperial Household Agency hospital, said doctors removed a small part of the pancreas to examine it for cancer.

Results of the biopsy will take a week, doctors said.

“So far the operation was successful, but because of his old age, we fear such complications as pneumonia,” Morioka said at a news conference after the 2 1/2-hour operation.

Hirohito was reported in satisfactory condition and was responding to his hospital attendants. His doctors said he will be released in about a week barring any complications.

The government designated Crown Prince Akihito, 53, to perform imperial functions while his father recuperates. Prince Hiro, 27, next in line to Japan’s 2,600-year-old Chrysanthemum Throne, will take over for Akihito when Akihito leaves Oct. 3 for a two-week trip to the United States.

Though stooped and somewhat frail, Hirohito appeared in good spirits before entering the hospital. He was Japan’s first reigning monarch to undergo an operation.

Morioka, director of the hospital and an authority on the digestive system, headed the team of four surgeons from the prestigious Tokyo University Hospital who performed the operation.

Hirohito, the 124th occupant of the throne, became emperor Dec. 25, 1926, after the death of his father, Emperor Taisho. After World War II, he was forced by U.S. occupation forces to renounce his status as a “living god,” and he became a ceremonial symbol of the state.

The constitution bars him from abdicating the throne.