Akihito, who abdicated in April, was a paradoxical figure: a hereditary monarch, the son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, strictly barred from political utterance, who even so stood out against the historical revisionism of the nationalist right. Richard Lloyd Parry considers the former emperor’s part in the intellectual and political debate over Japan’s wartime record, and its history of apology – or non-apology – for its conduct in East Asia.Read the lecture in the LRB: lrb.me/lloydparrypodSign up to the LRB newsletter: lrb.me/lrbnewsletterpod For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy