Humanity Declaration (人間宣言, Ningen-sengen?) is an imperial rescript issued by the Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) as part of a New Year’s statement on January 1, 1946 at the request of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. In the rescript, which follows the Five Charter Oath of 1868, the Emperor denied the concept of his being a living god, which would eventually lead to the promulgation of the new Constitution, under which the Emperor is “the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people.”
The rescript is not officially titled, but apart from its popular name, “Humanity Declaration” or “Ningen-sengen”, it is also known as Imperial Rescript on the Construction of a New Japan (新日本建設に関する詔書, Shin Nippon Kensetsu ni Kan suru Shōsho?) and Imperial Rescript on National Revitalization (年頭、国運振興の詔書, Nentō, Kokuun Shinkō no Shōsho?).
Read more about Humanity Declaration: The Declaration, Interpretation
Famous quotes containing the words humanity and/or declaration:
“Disease can never be conquered, can never be quelled by emotion’s wailful screaming or faith’s cymballic prayer. It can only be conquered by the energy of humanity and the cunning in the mind of man. In the patience of a Curie, in the enlightenment of a Faraday, a Rutherford, a Pasteur, a Nightingale, and all other apostles of light and cleanliness, rather than of a woebegone godliness, we shall find final deliverance from plague, pestilence, and famine.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions by a simple declaration of the divine fact. Bid the invaders take the shoes from off their feet, for God is here within.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)