March 17, 2006--Friday Fanaticisms XXVI: Y-Chromosome Redux

The crisis continues. In fact, it is intensifying—millions in Japan are taking to the streets out of concern for the future of the Chrysanthemum Throne (see liked article from the NY Times).

I’ve commented about this before—how because Crown Princess Masako has not delivered a male child, after her husband becomes Emperor, there is no available male with the right bloodlines ready to succeed him. And as a result, since the Japanese have given up the concubine system, which allowed Emperor’s male children who were born outside of wedlock to ascend that Throne, the Japanese have been struggling with what to do.

The Prime Minister proposed legislation that would have allowed females to become Emperors but had to withdraw it when nationalists in his own party rose to resist. These nationalists, who have been gaining strength in Japan, stand for much more than just Y-Gene Emperors. They are also fervent in their insistence that World War II history be revised. For example, that the Rape of Nanking was vastly exaggerated; that Japan invaded Korea and China to liberate them; and, of course, that Japan was tricked into the war by the United States.

But these nationalists’ strange sense of history stretches back in time to well before the Second World War—all the way back to at least 2,665 years ago when Jimmu, who was descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, became Japan’s first Emperor.

Also, these nationalists ignore their own imperial history, forgetting that at least eight previous Emperors were actually Empresses—women. Based on this, one would have assumed that, good traditionalists that they are, they would have been strong proponents of the Prime Minister’s legislation. But that was then and this is now.

One further complication—this one also about genetics. Forget the Y Chromosome for the moment. The main reason why there is this insistence on male succession is because of the requirement to “keep the male bloodline pure.” To assure that, the Empress has “to have a pure body.” Which to them means she has both to bear the Emperor’s children and that at least one of them must be a boy.

But what makes these rabid believers in male succession so sure that the Empress herself isn’t fooling around? Not every Eunuch is as dysfunctional as one would like to believe.

If I were to offer any advice to those in Japan who want to restore Japan to its imperial glory, it would be to suggest taking a page from what we Jews do—as a practical people we say that Jewishness is defined by being born of a Jewish mother. The father, maybe Jewish, maybe not (if you get my drift), is not the defining issue. Biologically, before recent advances in DNA testing, one could be sure of just one thing—a child’s mother.

So Japan has it all backwards. They need to rethink what they mean when they say that the Empress must have a “pure body.” In other words, as they revise their history by thinking Jewish.