Japan’s Princess Mikasa, great aunt to emperor, dies aged 101

 
Princess Mikasa — the oldest member of the Japanese royal family — passed away on Friday at the age of 101. The emperor’s great aunt had been hospitalised in Tokyo since March after suffering a stroke and pneumonia.
The Japanese royal was born as Yuriko Takagi to an aristocratic family in 1923. She married  the younger brother of wartime emperor Hirohito at the age of 18 and became styled as ‘Her Imperial Highness The Princess Mikasa’. She had five children with Prince Takahito — two girls and three boys. 
According to Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, she gave birth to her first child in 1944 during World War II. The she was forced to stay in a shelter with her baby daughter after their house burned down in an air raid. 
Hirohito — who served as Japan’s commander-in-chief during its brutal march across Asia in the 1930s and 40s — surrendered in an August 1945 speech, after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Princess Mikasa’s husband Prince Mikasa, who died in 2016 at 100, was in favour of the decision to end the war.
But young officers who disagreed would come regularly to the shelter to try and change his mind.
Princess Mikasa recalled that the atmosphere was “very frightening” with “heated arguments and tension, as if bullets were about to fly”, the Asahi Shimbun said.
Having lost their home, the decades that followed were far from luxurious for the princess, who took on domestic duties as the family struggled financially.
“When I was raising my children, Japanese society was still in a difficult period,” she said on her 100th birthday in a statement released by the Imperial Household Agency.
“I recall with deep gratitude how many people, including my husband, always supported me,” the princess added.
All three of Princess Misaka’s sons passed away before her, including one who died aged 47 while playing squash at the Canadian embassy.
Male-only succession rules mean that Japan’s royal women cannot ascend to the throne and must forgo their imperial status if they marry outside the family.
Princess Misaka has three granddaughters who remain princesses, including Akiko, whose 2015 book was a hit in Japan, describing her studies at Oxford and an incident in which her diplomatic passport caused suspicion at an airport.
The 101-year-old’s passing followed reports since early November that her condition had begun to deteriorate.
Current Emperor Naruhito’s 18-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito is the only young heir to the throne. Naruhito’s daughter Princess Aiko is barred from the throne under the Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947.
(With inputs from agencies)