PRINCESS MASAKO PRISONER OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM THRONE

PRINCESS MASAKA is a Tragic True Story of Japan's Crown Princess. It's C 2006 by Ben Hills.

What's really interesting about this book is the information on how Japan's royal family has sustained itself through the accepted relationship of Emperor with courtesans. Princess Masaka is a highly educated woman (Harvard) who speaks several languages, lived in the United States and Britain as a child of a diplomat and rose to be a diplomat herself. But once Miss Owada accepted the proposal of the Emperor to be, her long time by now husband Naruhito, her life became more constrained than Princess Diana's ever was.

She was stifled and conformed until - it seems - she had a nervous breakdown. The crux of the matter was that her intelligence and all the things that attracted him to her were not of use to her as his wife. Her only role was a diminished one, to bear a son and keep the throne in the family. As a result of what was probably years of infertility treatments, she bore a beloved daughter. But the pressure on her to try again and bear a son went on. And she has thus been criticized terribly by the Japanese. A sister-in-law has had a son who is in line as a male. Divorce has been discussed. Her husband seems to be sticking by her and so he must love her. This couple is just too modern for the highest society of Japan. As Westerners we say SHAME ON JAPAN!

We hate to hear of any woman having her spirit broken because her whole life must revolve around her reproductive ability. However, this is a case where in the past the son of a courtesan would have eased the pressure upon her that broke her.

WILL JAPAN GET WITH IT AND ALLOW A FEMALE TO BE EMPRESS without having to be married?