After the defeat of Japan, the "First Goddess of Showa" Setsuko Hara was introduced by her beloved emperor to MacArthur, who was in an aging state.
Some special dinners have a purpose, and the high-level referrals are not out of good intentions and kindness, and there must be ulterior motives and arrangements.
Sure enough, Setsuko Hara naturally became MacArthur's lover in Japan, allowing MacArthur to vent.
Some people say that Setsuko Hara is patriotic, so she is willing to sacrifice her life for the emperor and the country, and become the plaything of MacArthur, the "Japanese Emperor".
Perhaps, since then, especially after MacArthur left Japan, Setsuko Hara has been alone, never married to him, and died at the age of 95.
Speaking of her, the "first goddess of Showa", many people sighed.
First, the goddess in front of Kurosawa's camera
Setsuko Hara, whose real name is Masae Aida, was born in 1920 in Yokohama City to a civilian family.
Despite her modest family, she showed extraordinary talent, and the articles she wrote as a child were repeatedly taken out by the school.
Later, due to the failure of the family business and no more money, she ended her academic career after finishing junior high school.
I thought that her life would be ordinary, but she didn't, embarked on the road of acting, and was quite successful.
With the help of his brother-in-law Kumagai Hisatora, who is a director, Setsuko Hara officially stepped into the entertainment industry.
In 1935, she participated in her debut film "Young Don't Hesitate", in which she played a character named "Setsuko", and then used "Hara Setsuko" as her stage name.
She was only 15 years old at the time, and she looked stinking yet, but her amazing appearance had gradually taken shape, and a famous German director liked it very much after seeing it, so he asked her to participate in the shooting of propaganda films promoting Japanese militarism and German Nazism.
Now it seems that this is undoubtedly a black history, but it was this experience that made Setsuko Hara a hit and gradually gained a foothold in the Japanese entertainment industry.
During World War II, the Japanese authorities not only used Setsuko Hara to shoot works to propagate fascism, but also made her a "peace ambassador" for Japan and Germany.
Constantly appearing on camera, Hara Setsuko became more and more prominent in the hearts of the Japanese people, and later gained a well-known name, that is, "the first goddess of Showa".
I thought that relying on the propaganda of militarism and Nazi ideology, Setsuko Hara would suffer heavy losses after World War II, but no, after the end of World War II, her acting career reached its peak.
In 1946, she participated in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "I Have No Regrets for Youth". Kurosawa became famous in the war, and she also "successfully transformed" and became a goddess in another context.
This film is mainly based on the "Zorkan International Espionage Incident" and the "Takigawa Incident", both of which had a huge impact on Japanese society at that time.
In the film, the image of Setsuko Hara is eye-catching, not only strong, intelligent and independent, but also quite assertive and not attached to men.
This new image of her later became the representative of the new image of women in Japan's postwar period.
Even if she became the "first goddess of Showa" and the benchmark for the new image of Japanese women, Setsuko Hara could not escape the fate of being played.
Second, become MacArthur's plaything
After Japan's defeat, the Japanese emperor was mainly worried about two issues: one was to protect the Japanese imperial family, and the other was to save his own life.
To this end, the Japanese emperor made a lot of efforts, including playing beauty tricks.
It is worth mentioning that the Japanese emperor's call for tens of thousands of Japanese women to serve American soldiers is actually a part of the beauty plan.
How to use the beauty meter? Who do you use the beauty meter for?
Obviously, the far away wants to buy the top of the United States, and the near one is to serve MacArthur who came to Japan, because MacArthur at this time is tantamount to Japan's "emperor".
However, at this time, MacArthur already had a wife and was over 60 years old, how to use a beauty meter on him?
After some consideration by the Japanese emperor and the Japanese high-ranking officials, it was decided to sacrifice the "first goddess of Showa" Hara Setsuko.
Under the arrangement of the emperor, Setsuko Hara, who was in her 20s and was in her youth, met MacArthur, who was in her 60s, and became lovers.
Their union can't help but be embarrassing, because MacArthur can be Setsuko Hara's grandfather, not lover.
With such a big age gap, how could Setsuko Hara be willing to accept it?
In fact, judging from her catering to Japanese militarism and participating in a series of films promoting militarism and Nazi themes, it is not surprising that she does not resist becoming MacArthur's plaything.
Some people say that she loves Japan, so she is willing to become a plaything.
It can only be said here that this move of the Japanese emperor is really very clever, and after MacArthur was comfortably served by Setsuko Hara, he cooperated with Japan to pass a series of bills, including the "Japanese Constitution" that retained the Japanese imperial family.
Some people also attribute this credit to Setsuko Hara, believing that her dedication is not shameful, and she has become a real "heroine".
Reduced to a plaything and hailed as a hero, perhaps only the Japanese can do it.
During her relationship with MacArthur, Setsuko Hara never gave up her career, and until MacArthur was transferred on April 11, 1951, she was still a first-line star in the Japanese entertainment industry.
At this time, she was only 31 years old.
In the decades that followed, she met director Yasujiro Ozu, but never married.
After Yasujiro Ozu's death in 1963, she gradually faded out of the show business, went deep into simplicity, and was alone.
On September 5, 2015, she also passed away at the age of 95.
Epilogue:
Setsuko Hara was lucky because she escaped the fate of an ordinary family and became not only a famous figure in the Japanese entertainment industry, but also a benchmark for new women in Japan's postwar period.
However, Setsuko Hara's history of fortune does not dare to be flattered, because most of her entire acting career has been involved in the promotion of Nazism and militarism, which has hurt the surrounding countries and people, and is a black history that she can never erase.
Just such a person with a black history, but he became popular in Japan. It can only be said that only a country like Japan can accommodate such people.