Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 25 June 1902
- Prince Chichibu visited Germany during Hitler's government in the Third Reich, and he even attended Nazi rally in Nuremberg in 1937. This rally was especially spectacular due to the light effects designed by Albert Speer (aka. the cathedral of light).
On this day, in 1902, the Japanese imperial prince Chichibu was born.
He was the younger brother of the famous Japanese Emperor Hirohito. Indeed, Prince Chichibu was the oldest of the three emperor’s younger brothers, so that there was a possibility that he would immediately succeed to the throne in the event of Hirohito’s death (when Hirohito still had no sons).
It is very interesting that Prince Chichibu studied in England, at the famous University of Oxford. During his stay in Europe, prince has gained a reputation as an alpinist. He was into sports and even tried to promote skiing and rugby in Japan.
It is particularly interesting that Prince Chichibu visited Germany during Hitler’s Third Reich, and even attended the Nazi Nuremberg Rally in 1937.
This rally was especially spectacular due to the light effects designed by Albert Speer (aka. the cathedral of light). On that occasion, Adolf Hitler personally met with Prince Chichibu.
Prince also attended the coronation of British King George VI (Father of the present Queen Elizabeth II) in London as a Japanese representative.
During World War II, Prince Chichibu was promoted to the rank of general. After the war, he was not charged with war crimes, nor were the other members of the Japanese imperial dynasty.
He died in 1953 at the age of 51. The cause of such a relatively early death was tuberculosis, from which he had long suffered.
