Appears Recovered From Surgery : Hirohito Greets People on His 87th Birthday

Japan’s Emperor Hirohito greeted well-wishers on his 87th birthday Friday, appearing frail and thin but well enough to reassure the nation that the world’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch has made a strong recovery from surgery last autumn.

The emperor, in his second public appearance since an intestinal bypass operation in September, waved stiffly from behind bulletproof glass on his palace veranda. Thousands of citizens waved back with paper Japanese flags and shouted, “Banzai!” Accompanied by Crown Prince Akihito and other members of the Imperial Family, Hirohito responded with terse remarks, thanking his subjects and wishing them happiness.

It was exactly one year earlier that the emperor showed the first sign of an illness that has since caused many Japanese to ponder, with varying degrees of discomfort and melancholy, the end of a remarkable era. The 124th occupant of Japan’s Chrysanthemum Throne, Hirohito has reigned through 61 years of rapid modernization, military adventure and defeat, poverty, booming economic development and prosperity.

Health Had Alarmed Aides

At a banquet celebrating his birthday last year, attendants were alarmed when the previously robust emperor was unable to keep food down. His condition deteriorated over the summer, eventually causing doctors to perform an intestinal bypass to avoid an obstruction from what was said to be a benign pancreatic tumor.

Although the topic of Hirohito’s mortality remained taboo in polite conversation--many Japanese worshiped the emperor like a god until Japan’s defeat in World War II--people began preparing psychologically for his death.

Yet the emperor appears to have bounced back.

The tenacious monarch resumed limited official duties shortly after his operation, then shuffled feebly onto the palace veranda Jan. 2 to offer New Year’s greetings in a ritual that, along with his birthday celebration, is one of two annual appearances before his subjects. In March, he resumed meeting foreign dignitaries and ventured on his first trip since the operation, traveling by train to his seaside villa in Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula.

Meeting with Japanese reporters earlier in the week in his first news conference since his operation, the emperor said his health is “returning to normal” and that he is once again active in his palace laboratory, where he conducts research for his lifelong work in marine biology. He added, though, that he is following doctors’ advice “not to overdo it.”

Indeed, the slow-moving, bespectacled Hirohito seemed to have recovered much of his pre-illness strength by Friday, which was observed as a national holiday. An estimated 40,000 visitors trudged through long lines and intermittent rain to the ordinarily inaccessible inner compound of the Imperial Palace, a sprawling oasis of forest and gardens surrounded by moats and huge stone walls in the center of Tokyo. The emperor stood briefly on the veranda only three times, instead of his usual five appearances but looked more stable and less emaciated than before.

“We’re very happy he’s lived to this age and that he’s healthy again,” said Hifumi Inoue, a 50-year-old businessman from a Tokyo suburb who visited the palace Friday. “He’s the symbol of our country. Japan solidifies around the emperor.”

Some Blame Hirohito

Not all of Japan, however, identifies closely with the imperial tradition. A small minority of Japanese blamed Hirohito for causing the war in the Pacific and advocated having him removed from the throne--or hanged--during the Allied occupation. Many natives of the southern Ryukyu Islands say they feel no affinity for the emperor because they have a culture that is distinct from that of the main Japanese islands.

Hirohito said in his 16-minute news conference, reports of which were delayed for publication until Friday, that he hoped to revive plans for a controversial trip to Okinawa in the Ryukyus, the only part of Japan that he has not visited since the end of the war.

But the emperor is deeply respected, if not loved, by the vast majority of Japanese, polls show.

Although he has remained silent about his wartime role, historians believe the emperor was manipulated by advisers into endorsing aggression. He was instrumental in bringing about surrender after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Asked in this week’s news conference what caused Japan to go to war, the emperor refused to answer because he said he did not wish to criticize others. He said the war was “my most unpleasant memory” and appealed to the people to keep their commitment to pacifism.

After offering a glimpse of himself to ordinary citizens Friday morning, the emperor attended a birthday banquet with 460 political and economic leaders, including Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.