NIKKO: Japanese Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko on Tuesday began their first visit in 23 years to the city of Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, where the Emperor Emeritus was evacuated during World War II.

The couple visited Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa Memorial Park, which includes an Imperial residence where the Emperor Emeritus stayed for a year from July 1944.

They also stopped at the University of Tokyo’s Nikko Botanical Garden, where a classroom was set up to allow the then Crown Prince to attend classes with his classmates.

During their trip through Friday, the couple is also scheduled to visit the Okunikko area, where the Emperor Emeritus stayed at the end of the war. But their schedule may change depending on their health condition and the weather.

After arriving at Tobu Nikko Station in the afternoon, the couple walked hand-in-hand through the Nikko Tamozawa memorial park in the rain. Seeing that a Japanese yew tree they planted during their previous visit has grown 3.5 meters tall, the Emperor Emeritus said, “It’s thriving.”

In July 1944, when the Emperor Emeritus was in the fifth grade of Gakushuin Elementary School, he was evacuated to the Nikko Tamozawa residence. In July 1945, he moved to a now-defunct hotel in the Okunikko area.

In a room on the second floor of the hotel, he listened to his father, then Emperor Hirohito, make a radio address announcing Japan’s surrender. The hotel building has been relocated to the town of Mashiko, also Tochigi, for preservation.

A Nikko visit by the Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita had been planned several times since 2015, which marked the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. Their visits planned for September 2019 and June 2016 were canceled due to a heavy rain disaster and a series of massive earthquakes, respectively. A May 2017 trip was skipped after the Empress Emerita caught a cold.

JIJI Press