Princess Mikasa, Oldest Member Of Japan's Royal Family, Passes Away

The oldest member of Japan's royal family, Princess Mikasa passed away. She had been hospitalised since March.

Japan's Princess Mikasa, whose given name is Yuriko, the oldest member of Japan's royal family and great-aunt to the emperor, passed away at the age of 101 on Friday. Since March she was hospitalised at St Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo after suffering a stroke and aspiration pneumonia.

The princess was born on June 4, 1923, to an aristocratic family, she was named Yuriko Takagi. At the age of 18, she was married to the younger brother of wartime emperor Hirohito. She had five children — two girls and three boys. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter in 1944 during World War II, according to AFP.

The report said that the couple’s imperial house was burned down in an air raid and she was forced to stay in a shelter with her baby. Hirohito who was Japan’s commander-in-chief in the 1930s and 40s surrendered in August 1945 after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the time, Princes Mikasa was in favour of the decision to end the war.

However, young officers would come to the shelter regularly to try and change Hirohito’s mind. As per AFP, Princess Mikasa said that the atmosphere was "very frightening" with "heated arguments” it felt like “bullets were about to fly”. 

Since the couple lost their home, the princess took up domestic duties as the family struggled financially. "When I was raising my children, Japanese society was still in a difficult period," she said on her 100th birthday in a statement released by the Imperial Household Agency. She served as an Honorary Vice-President of the Japanese Red Cross Society.

According to AFP, Princess Misaka's three sons passed away before her, one of whom died at the age of 47 while playing squash at the Canadian embassy. 

The country’s male-only succession rules prohibit royal women from ascending to the throne and require them to give up their imperial status if they marry outside the royal family.

Princess Mikasa has three granddaughters who remain princesses. In November, her condition had begun to deteriorate, ultimately, leading to her demise.