In World War II, Japan not only launched an all-out invasion of China, but also invaded Southeast Asian countries and launched the Pacific War, which involved countless innocent people in the war.
Emperor Hirohito, as the supreme ruler of Japan at the time, did not receive the punishment he deserved after the war, which has a lot to do with the fact that he gave MacArthur the "Showa goddess" Hara Setsuko in Japan.
What kind of legendary life did Hara, MacArthur's lover, have?
Showa and the first goddess
Born in 1920 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, to a commoner family, Hara had eight siblings and a relatively poor family.
At a very young age, Setsuko Hara showed her talent for literature, her articles were often included in school journals, and she became a little famous talent.
However, because of the problems in the family business, after she graduated from junior high school, her family could no longer afford to continue to pay her tuition, and her family advised her to give up her studies to reduce some financial pressure for the family.
However, Hara Waseko herself wanted to continue her studies, and she refused the family's offer, and the atmosphere in the home was very tense at that time.
It was at this time that her brother-in-law Kumagai Hisahu noticed that Hara Washiko was out of the blue, with a good appearance and figure.
Kumagai Hisahu was a well-known director, producer and screenwriter at the time, and had worked with many excellent actresses before.
In his opinion, Hara Setsuko is not inferior to those famous actresses at all, and has great potential to become an actor, so he suggested that Hara Setsuko enter the show business circle.
Although Setsuko Hara is still eager to study at school, she is still a little moved after hearing Kumagaya's words.
She believed in her brother-in-law's vision, and at that time, Kumagaya Hadhu had a very strong network in the film and television circle, and with his help, her acting path would be much smoother.
Finally, after repeated deliberations, Hara Quit from Girls' School and officially entered the film industry.
In 1935, at the age of 15, Setsuko Hara entered the Nikko Tamagawa Photography Institute, and she subsequently starred in Tetsu Taguchi's "Young People Don't Hesitate.".
In this debut film, she played a role called "Setsuko", so she gave herself the stage name "Hara Setsuko".
With her debut performance, Hara was appreciated by German director Arnold Fanck, who was chosen to appear in a German-Japanese co-production of Nazi propaganda films.
The film received huge responses in both countries, and Setsuko Hara also gained great popularity in Germany, and later she went to Germany as a "Japanese goodwill ambassador".
In that special era, in order to cater to the fascist regime, a large number of war movies were made in Japan, hyped up the war of aggression she launched, and Hara Also starred in a series of related films.
These films were very popular at the time, and the beautiful-looking Setsuko Hara became one of the favorite actresses of the Japanese people with her excellent performances, and was even known as the "First Goddess of Showa".
Her film acting career reached its peak, and she was only in her 20s.
At that time, Hara's acting career was bright, but what she did not know was that in the near future, she would become a political tool, and her life would be completely changed.
MacArthur arrived
Japan announced its unconditional surrender in 1945, but unlike Germany, which was divided up by the Allies, Japan was occupied by the United States alone after its defeat.
MacArthur was subsequently appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan by Truman, and was responsible for the Japanese military occupation while also shouldering the heavy responsibility of rebuilding Japan.
The United States' choice of MacArthur to take over Japan was also deliberate.
First of all, MacArthur himself had a very polished resume, and he was also the main commander of the Pacific War. He had fought head-on with the Japanese and won victories, and it was easier for the Japanese to submit to his management.
In addition, he had previously governed the Philippines for a period of time, and he also had certain experience in political work, and he could complete the work of rebuilding Japan relatively well.
For MacArthur himself, his impression of Japan certainly wouldn't be too good. Because in the early days of the Pacific War, his Philippines was attacked by Japan.
At that time, in the face of the Japanese attack, MacArthur's troops were gradually defeated, and he was eventually forced to retreat to Australia.
This embarrassing failure nearly ruined MacArthur's name. Although he later made a comeback to retake the Philippines, MacArthur, the shame of previous defeats, will never be forgotten.
After MacArthur came to Japan, he found that although Japan is also a capitalist country and the degree of industrialization is relatively developed, there is still a certain gap with Western countries.
This is because Japan embarked on the capitalist road through the Meiji Restoration, and this top-down reform led to the fact that feudal power in Japan was still deeply rooted, and the capitalist reform was not complete, and there were many drawbacks.
So the first thing MacArthur did was to model the Western system, formulate the MacArthur Constitution, and abolish the "King's Constitution" that Japan had previously used, so that japan's parliament was no longer responsible to the emperor as before, but to the voters.
The move changed Japan's power structure and put it back on track. However, he is well aware that it is not enough to amend the Constitution, and many of Japan's problems need to be solved from the root causes.
At that time, most of the people in Japan were seriously affected by the previous fascist militarism, and MacArthur began to find ways to lift their ideological shackles.
First of all, in the Japanese education system, he eliminated all content related to fascism and militarism, and banned the use of Shinto for propaganda and education.
Thanks to MacArthur's efforts, the Japanese began to become free in their thinking, and the feudal remnants of their thinking were gradually eliminated.
After solving these basic problems, MacArthur began to devote his energy to the reconstruction of Japan. First he disbanded many of Japan's chaebols, who had been the economic base of fascism.
Subsequently, he also promulgated the Agricultural Land Reform Act, which changed The Japanese land ownership system and eliminated landlords, which laid the foundation for Japan's subsequent development.
MacArthur's moves have all worked well, but there is one more thing that bothers him, and that is how to deal with Japan's Emperor Hirohito.
As the chief war criminal, Emperor Hirohito deserved to be tried, but because of his special status, macArthur was very troublesome to deal with.
Emperor Hirohito was equally worried, and he was also thinking about how to curry favor with MacArthur, the "Emperor Taishang".
Emperor Hirohito's beauty plan
After MacArthur came to Japan, Emperor Hirohito began to think about how to please the other side, because it was his life at stake.
After thinking about it for a long time, he decided to use the beauty meter to give the original festival to the other party, so as to show his sincerity.
But MacArthur already had a wife, and he and his wife, Jean Marie Philcross, had a son, and he naturally wouldn't abandon his family because of a Japanese woman he had never met.
Setsuko Hara was well aware of this, so from the very beginning, she did not hope that she could get a name, but was at ease as a mistress, accompanying MacArthur.
When MacArthur first saw Hara, he fell into it, and his eyes could no longer be removed from the other person's body.
And Hara not only has a beautiful appearance, but as a good actress, she knows exactly how she should behave in front of MacArthur.
She soon entered her role, and MacArthur's gentleness and shyness around her also made MacArthur unable to extricate herself.
With Setsuko Hara by her side, MacArthur's life in Japan was much more comfortable, and his attitude toward Emperor Hirohito changed somewhat.
Later, under his operation, Japan retained the emperor system, and because of the continuation of the emperor system, Emperor Hirohito, who had a special status, did not need to be tried.
In fact, after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and other countries hoped that Japan could abolish the emperor system, but with the insistence and intervention of the United States, the emperor was retained.
Emperor Hirohito, a criminal of war, was not punished, and in order to help Emperor Hirohito exonerate him, MacArthur even said that Emperor Hirohito did not need to bear the main responsibility for the Second World War, which shows that the beauty plan still played a role.
In addition to helping Emperor Hirohito escape punishment, through the efforts of Hara Setsuko, Japan gained a lot of relatively loose management policies from MacArthur.
In addition, MacArthur also made many concessions, and some previously disallowed organizations were also successfully formed.
The Japanese are well aware of the preservation of the imperial system and some favorable policies of the United States, and in addition to the consideration of the United States' self-interest, the dedication of Hara Setsuko also played a crucial role.
Her status among the Japanese people was further enhanced, and she became a goddess and hero in their minds. At that time, large photographs of Hara Couldiko could be seen everywhere in the streets of Japan, and she was no longer just a film actress.
MacArthur was very fond of the Japanese lover, and with his help, Setsuko Hara also participated in Japan's first post-war parliamentary election.
In that election, she actually got 250,000 votes, which is enough to see how influential she was in Japan at that time.
However, Hara Hasiko has no enthusiasm for politics, and what she really likes is her acting career. During her time as MacArthur's mistress, she still participated in many movies, and her wonderful performance was unanimously recognized by the outside world.
During this period, she had many collaborations with the famous Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, who had a high evaluation of her acting skills, and then she also became the royal heroine of Ozu Yasujiro.
In 1951, because of his defeat on the Korean battlefield, President Truman removed MacArthur from his post because he failed to fully support the policies of the United States and the United Nations, and the "Emperor Taishang" of Japan also left Japan.
As his lover in Japan, Hara Setsuko did not leave with him, but stayed in Japan, and the two never intersected again, and Hara Setsuko's life returned to peace.
Loneliness ends in old age
When MacArthur left Japan, Hara Waseko was only 31 years old, which is the golden age for actors to perform, and Hara Setsuko can continue to develop her acting career.
However, what is unexpected is that this goddess in the public's mind gradually reduced her acting activities after participating in "Tokyo Lovers" in 1952 and slowly faded out of people's sight.
Two years later, there was news that she would retire from the show business circle, and since then, although Hara Has not officially withdrawn from the show business circle, the number of works she has participated in has become less and less.
In 1962, she starred in her last film, "Zhongchen Zang", which was made to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Toho's founding. Since then, he has never participated in any film and disappeared from public view.
In addition to fading out of the show business circle, Hara Setsuko's love life is also a blank. After MacArthur left, Setsuko Hara never married in her life, and there was no scandal.
The only person of the opposite sex who is close to her is the director Ozu Yasujiro who admires her very much, and no one knows whether the two people simply appreciate each other.
When Yasujiro Ozu died in Tokyo in 1963, Setsuko Hara went to keep vigil for him. When she signed the autograph, she wrote not her stage name Hara Setsuko, but her real name, Huitian Changjiang.
Many people believe that this means that she has completely given up her previous identity and returned to an ordinary person, which also reflects her determination to completely retire.
Since then, people have hardly seen any news about Hara Jiezi, and she has been deeply simple every day and lived a quiet life.
It wasn't until September 5, 2015, that people once again got news about her, and at the age of 95, she completed her life journey accompanied by her family.
Looking back on the life of Hara Setsuko, she became famous at a young age and became the most popular actress in Japan.
In his 20s, he was sent by the emperor to MacArthur as a lover, and then retired in the golden age of the actor and spent his life alone.
And there are many mysteries in her, such as her relationship with Yasujiro Ozu and the reasons for choosing not to marry for the rest of her life, and with her death, these questions will never have answers.
However, regarding the experience of accompanying MacArthur, she once gave her own opinion clearly.
She said that she would not regret that experience, in her opinion, she did it entirely for her own country and people, and she could dedicate herself to the motherland in this way, which she felt was a very honorable thing.
While it was hard to accept being a mistress for MacArthur, it was perfectly understandable from the point of view of the original set.
Many Japanese people share the same view, which is why Hara Setsuko is regarded by many Japanese as a goddess and national hero.
Hara Setsuko's use of beauty to win Japan's interests is beyond reproach. But she made many war criminals avoid the punishment they deserved, which was intolerable to those victims of Japan's war of aggression.
No matter how high she speaks of her actions, she cannot change the fact that she is an "accomplice" of sinners, and her actions will never be forgiven.