Tintype of Divinity

If the Presidency of the United States had descended from father to son for the past 2,500 years, and if it were U. S. credo that First President George Washington was the son of Almighty God, things would have been a good deal easier this week for the Japanese Cabinet of terrified old Premier Keisuke Okada. For months Japanese jingoes have been trying to upset the Cabinet with charges that it has insufficiently defended the sanctity of the Divine Emperor (TIME, March 18 et seq.). Last week they were able to scream until Tokyo's welkin rang that the Cabinet had failed to prevent the introduction into Japan of the August issue of Vanity Fair in which appeared a cartoon of His Majesty, Emperor Hirohito, the Son of Heaven.

In Japan the Son of Heaven, last of 124 rulers in unbroken descent from the Son Goddess Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami, is never cartooned. The very notion freezes pious Japanese to the marrow and members of the Cabinet last week wailed: "This is terrible! Terrible!" Tension was heightened because His Majesty had been cartooned in the lowly and menial attitude of a huckster drawing through the streets a cart on which lay a rolled-up paper supposed to be the Nobel Peace Prize. What Vanity Fair's cartoonist might be getting at was obscure to Japanese, but he had dared to cartoon the Divine Emperor, and he had placed the Son of Heaven in an attitude which made Japanese blood boil. What, Japanese wanted to know, was President Roosevelt going to do about it? A cablegram hurled from Tokyo with the urgency of a thunderbolt caught crinkly-eyed Japanese Ambassador Hirosi Saito at his U. S. country place in New Canaan, Conn., sent him scrambling back to Washington.

When newshawks got through to Editor Frank Crowninshield of Vanity Fair at Long Island's damp Lido Country Club, he was mystified. "The title of our publication denotes a frivolous, satirical periodical," he explained.

In showing the Emperor of Japan walking off with the Nobel Peace Prize, Vanity Fair also showed J. P. Morgan making a stump speech against Capitalism, Admiral Byrd wintering in tropical Tahiti, William Randolph Hearst as Ambassador to Soviet Russia and Huey Long in a friar's robe entering a monastery. To crack this page of mirth wide open it was captioned "NOT ON YOUR TINTYPE. Five highly unlikely historical situations by one who is sick of the same old headlines."

The cartoonist, William Cropper, an ardent Communist sympathizer, unfortunately has no more sense of humor than a Japanese in such matters. While well-meaning Editor Crowninshield was explaining with worried sincerity that everything was all in fun, Cartoonist Cropper exploded: "I shall continue my fight against Japanese Imperialism! The power of the Emperor of Japan and other plutocrats does not intimidate me. I am at work now on a cartoon of the Emperor which he may well consider really offensive!"

In Washington, where a good many State Departmenters were secretly pleased that the Japanese Government and Ambassador Saito found themselves in hot water, the Administration observed piously that it cannot interfere with the freedom of the U. S. Press. In the offices of Vanity Fair it was hoped for some hours that the State Department might send a bit of suggestion or advice, but mum to Vanity Fair were Secretary Hull and President Roosevelt.

Meanwhile the Japanese Cabinet, just before the Vanity Fair incident burst, tried last week to settle the recent months of quarrel about Emperor Hirohito's exact status by a solemn and fervent pronouncement. Excerpt:

"The national policy of Japan is clearly revealed in the divine message that the Sun Goddess gave her grandson, the first Emperor, on his advent in Japan: Japan is ruled by an unbroken line of emperors and the prosperity of the imperial line is coeval with heaven and earth."

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