Japan empress talks of palace woeWednesday, October 20, 2004 Posted: 0514 GMT TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japanese Empress Michiko has given her sympathy -- and possibly a veiled rebuke -- to her daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Masako, who has spent much of the last year in seclusion with a stress-related illness....
...Michiko herself suffered from stress after her marriage to Emperor Akihito in 1959, including bullying from courtiers and harassment by her imperial mother-in-law. She was widely said to have had a nervous breakdown shortly after her marriage.
In words that could also be interpreted as applying to Masako, however, the empress said she had felt compelled not to disgrace the world's oldest monarchy or disappoint the public.
"During all the years since, the sense of heavy responsibility has stayed with me all the time that I should not disgrace the imperial family, with its long history, who accepted me, an ordinary citizen, as crown princess," she said.
"At the same time, the thought has also stayed with me continually that I should not betray the expectations of the many people who saw me off to a new journey on that same day with much blessing, and stain the history of the common people out of whom I came," she said.
