The voluntary repudiation by the Emperor of Japan of the belief in his divine nature, long accorded him by the church and state, is impressive evidence that momentous changes can take place in human affairs more quickly than has oftentimes been thought possible. The Emperor's statement to the Japanese people says that his presumed divinity is "a false conception" based on legends and myths. The Allied Commander comments: "His action represents the irresistible influence of a sound idea. A sound idea cannot be stopped." The New York Times avers that "a religious and political transformation of importance to Japan, to the Far East, and to the world at large has been wrought."
Only through changes in thought can progress be made by individuals or nations. And changes in thought come only as men are willing to abandon false conceptions for existing facts. It took human consciousness many centuries to realize fully enough the wrongness of human slavery to outlaw it into oblivion, unmeasured centuries to discover and accept the equality of all men before the law. The basic rights of the individual to freedom of thought, speech, and religion are still to be accorded that universal recognition which cannot for long be denied them. The influence of custom, false education, legends, and myths is being broken by the activity of ideas that are sound and true. The fiction of falsity has no chance of standing against truth and reality.
Streetcars passing the palace in Tokyo formerly stopped to permit passengers to get out and bow to the divinity who they believed resided in the palace. But there was no divinity there. Their actions were the product of a false concept held in belief. The exposure of the falsity of this belief opens the way for freer thinking and freer living by a large segment of the human race. One form of idolatry has fallen from its unstable foundation.
