信：妇女决心用自己的生命来确保皇帝的安全

 信：妇女决心用自己的生命来确保皇帝的安全

1945 年 12 月 7 日

阁下：

您最近好吗？

我们与最高统帅阁下最亲近，也最仰仗您的仁慈之心。

我们深知只有您的心才是我们的依靠，所以我再次给您寄信。

您可能会觉得麻烦和多余，但请容忍我

听一听日本人民的恳求。

今天的报纸又让我们心灰意冷。

当然，读到日本同胞因战争罪被捕让我们感到痛心，但当这篇文章让我们感到天皇的责任可能会受到质疑时，我们的痛苦是无以复加的。

作为战败国的公民，我们愿意接受任何苦难；

作为日本人，我们唯一的骄傲是我们没有表现出懦弱。

我们决心在任何困难面前都不说一句怨言，但我们不能忍受的是天皇遭遇的任何不幸。

不幸再小，我们也不能忍受。

当今皇帝身负重担，是所有皇帝中最不幸的一个。

每当想起这些，我都会热泪盈眶。

我们为皇帝遭受更多苦难而感到痛苦，阁下可能无法想象，因为您没有皇帝，但这种感受并非没有受过教育的人的盲目或疯狂信仰。

对我们来说，皇帝不是神，不能当作偶像。

我们对皇帝的崇敬和爱戴要强烈得多、丰富得多、庞大得多。

正如我昨天所说，这是流淌在日本人血液中的东西。

我想说的是，现在的天皇没有一个好臣子。

我们是多么痛恨那些割断天皇与人民之间纽带的人。

如果嫌疑人中哪怕有一个懦夫试图通过将责任推给天皇来逃避自己的责任，我们都会认为这是日本最大的耻辱，如果阁下将此事公之于众，我知道这种耻辱会刺痛我们的心。

日本天皇的本质是热爱和平。

有些日本人忘记了天皇的仁慈，忘记了天皇为了拯救他们而试图牺牲自己的仁慈，我真的对全世界感到羞愧。

现任天皇没有责任。

天皇身边的随从迫使他陷入了窘境。

阁下，请不要从你偶然遇到的丑陋日本人身上判断所有日本人。

我也曾认为自己是一个高人一等的民族，但现在，我所看到的和听到的带给我的只有耻辱和悲伤。

那些像妓女一样卖弄风骚的年轻女孩，那些无视饥饿的同胞并在黑市上发财的人，那些即使出生在日本却试图驱逐天皇的人，那些试图逃避责任的家臣，等等等等。

为什么他们不能带着从祖先那里继承的骄傲勇敢地接受失败呢？

这只会让

我感到羞愧和耻辱。

为了保护天皇，如果您能保证天皇的安全，我们愿意将自己的生命献给您的国家。

阁下，我恳请您理解日本天皇。

请原谅我这封冗长而拙劣的信。

昨天和今天的天气都很好。

我们称这种天气为 "霜日"。

在我们有生之年，我们将竭尽全力爱戴天皇、日本和美丽的武藏野（东京西面的平原）。

祈愿阁下身体健康。

伊藤忠[拇指印］

December 7 [1945]

Your Excellency: 

How have you been?

 We feel closest to Your Excellency, the supreme commander, and rely upon your kind heart.

 Knowing that we depend on your heart alone, I am once again sending you a letter.

 You may consider it troublesome and redundant, but please bear with me

and listen to the pleas of the Japanese people.

Today's newspaper has made us feel disheartened again.

 Of course, it hurts us to read about fellow Japanese being arrested for war crimes, but when the article gives us the sense that the emperor may be questioned about his responsibility, it pains us without limit.

 As citizens of a defeated nation, we are willing to accept any amount of hardship;

 our only pride as Japanese is that we not show ourselves to be cowards.

 We are determined not to utter one word of complaint despite any hardship, but the one thing we cannot endure is any misfortune visited upon the emperor.

 No matter how small the misfortune, we cannot stand it.

The present emperor is burdened with troubles and is the most unfortunate of all the emperors.

 Whenever I think of this, tears come to my eyes.

 The pain we feel about visiting more hardship on the emperor may not be conceivable to Your Excellency because you do not have an emperor, but this feeling is not the blind or crazy belief of the uneducated.

 To us, the emperor is not a god to be treated as an idol.

 Our reverence and affection for the emperor are much, much more intense, much, much larger and abundant.

 As I said yesterday, this is something that flows in the blood of the Japanese.

I want to say that the present emperor did not have a single good retainer.

 How we detest those who severed the bond between the emperor and the people.

 If there is even one coward among the suspects who tries to escape his responsibility by laying it on the emperor, we would consider it the greatest disgrace for Japan, and if Your Excellency were to make this public, I know the shame would pierce our hearts.

The essence of the Japanese emperor is a love of peace.

 I am truly embarrassed toward the world that there are some Japanese who have forgotten the kindness of the emperor, who tried sacrificing himself in order to save them.

The present emperor is not responsible.

 Attendants close to the emperor forced him into a quandary.

 Please, Your Excellency, do not judge all of the Japanese people from the ugly Japanese you happen to come across.

 I was one of those who once believed ourselves to be a superior people, but now, what I see and what I hear brings me nothing but shame and sadness.

Young girls who display their coquetry like prostitutes, those who disregard hungry fellow citizens and get fat on the black market, those who are trying to expel the emperor even though they were born in Japan, those retainers who are trying to evade their responsibility, etc.

, etc.

 Why can they not bravely accept defeat with the pride they inherited from their ancestors?

 It only makes

me feel ashamed and humiliated.

 To protect the emperor, we will gladly offer our lives to Your Excellency's country if you will guarantee the emperor's safety.

Your Excellency, I beseech you, please understand the emperor of Japan.

Please forgive me for this long and poorly written letter.

 The weather has been fine both yesterday and today.

 We call this type of weather frosty sunshine.

As long as our lives last, we will love and revere the emperor, Japan, and beautiful Musashino [a plain to the west of Tokyo] with all our strength.

 I pray for Your Excellency's health.

Ito Taka [thumb seal]