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As the scale of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster unfolded, Emperor Akihito told his closest aides he wanted to visit the affected areas as soon as possible to console the survivors.
At the same time, the emperor made clear he wanted to avoid adding to the burden of local authorities who already had their hands full providing relief to disaster victims.
The imperial couple informed both Shingo Haketa, grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency, and Yutaka Kawashima, the 72-year-old grand chamberlain, of their intention to first visit evacuees in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture who were made homeless by the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. They then wanted to tour disaster-stricken areas in Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures before visiting the three most heavily damaged prefectures in the northeastern Tohoku region.
Haketa, 72, and other Imperial Household Agency officials had initially thought the emperor and empress would only visit the three Tohoku prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima. So they were surprised that the emperor, then 77, and empress, then 76, had mapped out such an exacting schedule, one that would tax much younger people.
Over the years, the couple has made it a point to visit areas hit by major natural disasters and meet with victims at evacuation centers.
In 1991, shortly after ascending the Chrysanthemum Throne, the emperor and empress went to Nagasaki Prefecture after the eruption at Mount Unzen-Fugendake. The visit came 37 days after the eruption and pyroclastic flow that killed more than 40 people.
In 1993, after Okushirito island was hit by towering tsunami after an earthquake off the southwestern coast of Hokkaido, the couple arrived 15 days later. The disaster claimed nearly 200 lives.
In the case of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 that devastated the port city of Kobe and claimed more than 6,000 lives, they visited 14 days later.
In 2011, it was decided the couple would visit an evacuation center in Tokyo on March 30, 19 days after the disaster that left close to 16,000 people dead and nearly 3,000 missing.
On the morning of March 24, an official with the General Affairs Division of the Imperial Household Agency called the secretariat division of the Tokyo metropolitan government and said: "Their majesties earnestly wish to visit an evacuation center. Please inform us about the situation."
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, now 81, proposed that the visit be canceled.
"Because the evacuees leave the center during the day, there are not many people even if the couple came all the way to the center," he said. "It would be wasting their time."
However, Imperial Household Agency officials pressed for preparations to proceed with all haste.
Of the three evacuation centers in Tokyo, it was decided the imperial couple would visit the Tokyo Budo-kan, a metropolitan martial arts venue in Adachi Ward, where the largest number of evacuees were staying.
Ishihara rarely attends functions hosted by the Imperial Household Agency. In the past, when the imperial couple visited a Tokyo facility, he often sent a vice governor to greet them in his place.
But on this occasion, Ishihara wore his disaster management uniform when he welcomed the emperor and empress at the Tokyo Budo-kan.
Ishihara was accompanied by Kenichi Kasai, 60, who was in charge of the facility as head of the Tokyo metropolitan government's Sports Bureau.
"It was unusual for Ishihara-san to personally welcome their majesties at a Tokyo metropolitan government facility," Kasai said. "He probably felt that this disaster was an especially major one."
At the time, Ishihara was campaigning for re-election. On March 11, shortly before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, he announced his intention to run for a fourth term.
Ishihara was sharply criticized for referring to the disasters as "divine punishment" on March 14.
The Tokyo Budo-kan had been used as an evacuation center from the first week after the twin disasters.
At 3:40 p.m. on March 30, 2011, Akihito and Michiko arrived at the facility.
Of the 288 evacuees there, 269 were from Fukushima Prefecture.
Shortly before the visit, Tokyo metropolitan government officials, along with the police, went to the Tokyo Budo-kan to confirm the route the couple would take when they greeted the evacuees.
The evacuees were told: "Tomorrow, their majesties will come to offer their condolences."
Some asked, "How should we receive them?"
Officials suggested they act naturally.
Kasai previously accompanied the imperial couple when they visited evacuees from Miyakejima island after an eruption there in 2000. At that time, Kasai was in charge of the press section at the Tokyo metropolitan government.
"I thought about setting the route so their majesties could be near the evacuees," Kasai said.
The plan was to have the imperial couple pass by the elderly and children to make it easier for them to speak with the evacuees.
After arriving at the Tokyo Budo-kan, the emperor and empress started chatting with the evacuees separately.
When Michiko was speaking with a couple, their daughter, who was playing nearby, jumped up and down and cheerfully called to her--using the word for grandma--and asked where her husband was.
Later, Kasai was surprised to see Michiko had departed from the set route and was talking to a young man with dyed hair. He wondered whether a man sporting such a hairdo was aware of the proper etiquette when in the presence of the empress.
What happened next surprised Kasai even more. As the young man began talking about his family to the empress, he began sobbing openly.
The imperial couple politely spoke to one evacuee after another.
Ishihara escorted the couple through the crowd.
"I became exhausted just listening to the evacuees from behind the imperial couple," he said later. "I would not have been able to do the same thing and continue to listen to what the evacuees had to say."
Soon afterward, Ishihara tried to create some distance between himself and the imperial couple.
During a break, Ishihara explained the situation in the three Tohoku prefectures that he visited to observe relief work being done by the Tokyo Fire Department and Tokyo metropolitan government workers.
"It was so wretched that it went beyond one's imagination," Ishihara told the imperial couple.
He added: "Your majesty is probably tired. How about having one of the younger princes visit the disaster-stricken areas in your place?"
Akihito did not immediately reply. However, as the visit to the Tokyo Budo-kan was winding down and the emperor was about to leave, he went up to Ishihara, who had come to see the couple off, and said, "Ishihara-san, I myself will go to Tohoku."
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