Emperor Akihito Born: Japan's Humanizing Monarch
Akihito transformed the Japanese monarchy from a distant, quasi-divine institution into one grounded in personal connection with the people. During his three-decade reign, he traveled to former battlefields across the Pacific to express remorse for wartime suffering, and his unprecedented 2019 abdication broke a two-century tradition to ensure a stable succession.
December 23, 1933
93 years ago
What Else Happened on December 23
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