Under Emperor Hirohito, who was considered a god, Shinto nationalism created some of the most horrific atrocities in history in the cause of a righteous and racist holy war, Bryan Mark Rigg points out. Rigg has worked as a professor of history at American Military University, Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He’s the distinguished author of several highly regarded books on World War II history. Rigg’s newest book, recently published by Knox Press, is called “Japan’s Holocaust: A History of Imperial Japan’s Mass Murder and Rape during World War II.”
“Hirohito was revered as a living God as a Shinto belief until 1945, when he renounced his Godhead,” Rigg reveals to “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Every emperor for the last 2,500 years was revered as a god in Japan. So he wasn’t only a dictator and a military leader, but he was a god in human form.”
“Freethought Matters” now airs in:
- Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
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If you don’t live in any of the marquee towns where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday.
Upcoming guests include an expert on the Comstock Act, an author of a new book on the Scopes Trial and another author writing on the dangers of vouchers to aid religious schools. You can catch interviews from previous seasons here, including with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, author John Irving, actor John “Q” de Lancie and award-winning columnist Katha Pollitt.
Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.
P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers — your antidote to religion on Sunday morning!
