Education: Matriarchy

Heaven’s grandsons have always had as little truck with women as possible. Princes of Japan’s Imperial House were traditionally removed at an early age from feminine influence—even their own mother’s. But last week Emperor Hirohito looked around for an American schoolmarm to tutor twelve-year-old Tsugu-no-miya Akihito (“The Prince of the August Succession and Enlightened Benevolence”). Hirohito begged Dr. George D. ‘Stoddard, head of the American Education Mission, to help him pick the right kind of U.S. woman.

The Crown Prince, wearing a schoolboy blue serge uniform of tunic, short pants, and cap with brass cherry blossom, had just finished his elementary schooling, and celebrated by planting an oak tree on the grounds of the Peers’ School. In a school-house built for his benefit next to the Palace grounds—to spare the prince a “dangerous” trip down the street—he had learned his lessons by rote and recited them, singsong fashion, with other young male aristocrats. He had also studied English with a British tutor, long resident in Japan, whose future under an American matriarchy remained in doubt.