Hirohito Given Two More Transfusions, Watches TV

Ailing Emperor Hirohito was still suffering from internal bleeding today and received two more blood transfusions, dispelling hopes that his intestinal hemorrhage ceased, doctors reported.

The world’s longest-reigning living monarch watched serial dramas on television and spoke briefly with Crown Prince Akihito, government spokesman Keizo Obuchi said.

Five days after a hemorrhage caused the 87-year-old emperor to vomit blood, imperial physicians said they discovered a small amount of intestinal bleeding. But palace officials continued to insist the emperor’s condition was stable.

“It could be the remainder of the hemorrhage Monday night, but if it isn’t, that would be worrisome,” news reports quoted Iwao Miyao, vice grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency, as telling reporters.

In Britain, two tabloid newspapers, which on Wednesday called Hirohito the “evil emperor” and encouraged him to “rot in hell” for his role in World War II, today renewed their attacks on him after the Japanese ambassador protested to their editors.

“Japs Hit Back at Sun,” the Sun newspaper said in a banner headline. A front-page headline in the Daily Star read: “Japan Declares War on the Daily Star.”

Crowds of Japanese flocked to the gates of the Imperial Palace despite a cold drizzle. Agency officials said more than 70,000 praying for Hirohito’s recovery signed their names in registries at 12 sites across Japan.

Local government offices set up their own registries, and news reports said the number of signers topped 300,000 nationwide.

“I was praying for the emperor at home this week, but today I just had to come here,” said one man who offered Buddhist chants outside the moat surrounding the imperial compound.

One elderly visitor to the palace wore a uniform of the Japanese Imperial Army from the era of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The man said it wasn’t his, but he could find no other to wear.

“I felt I had to wear some kind of military uniform to come before the emperor,” he said.