These texts are only from the English parts of the original.
"It is with a sense of deep satisfaction
that I am today able to announce a decision of the Emperor and Government of
Japan to submit to the Japanese people a new and enlightened constitution which
has my full approval. This instrument has been drafted after painstaking investigation
and frequent conference between members of the Japanese Government and this headquarters
following my initial direction to the cabinet five months ago.
Sovereignty With People
"Declared by its terms to be the supreme law for Japan,
it places sovereignty squarely in the hands of the people. It establishes governmental
authority with the predominant power vested in an elected legislature, as representative
of the people, but with adequate check upon that power, as well as upon the power
of the Executive and the Judiciary, to insure that no branch of government may
become autocratic or arbitrary in the administration of affairs of state. It
leaves the throne without governmental authority or state property, subject
to the people's will, a symbol of the people's unity. It provides for and guarantees
to the people fundamental human liberties which satisfy the most exacting standards
of enlightened thought. It severs for all time the shackles of feudalism and
in its place raises the dignity of man under protection of the people's sovereignty.
It is throughout responsive to the most advanced concept of human relations -
is an electric instrument, realistically blending the several divergent political
philosophies which intellectually honest men advocate.
"Foremost of its provisions is that which, abolishing war as a sovereign
right of the nation forever renounces the threat or use of force as a means for
settling disputes with any other nation and forbids in future the authorization
of any army, navy, air force or other war potential or assumption of rights of
belligerency by the state. By this undertaking and commitment Japan surrenders
rights inherent in her own sovereignty and renders her future
security and very survival subject to the good faith and justice of the peace
loving peoples of the world. By this does a nation, recognizing the futility
of war as an arbiter of international issues, chart a new course oriented to
faith in the justice, tolerance and understanding of mankind.
"The Japanese people thus turn their backs firmly upon the mysticism and
unreality of the past and face instead a future of realism with a new faith and
new hope."
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