"A Japanese royal - who served World War Two and criticised the brutality of troops fighting in his older brother's name - has been laid to rest after his death at the age of 100. Prince Mikasa, the youngest brother of Japan's wartime ruler Emperor Hirohito, was the uncle of current monarch Emperor Akihito. Today solemn ceremonies were held in memory of a man who challenged the notion that his brother was divine, and called for his abdication after Japan's war defeat. Prince Mikasa, the oldest monarch in Japanese history, was famously appalled by the atrocities he witnessed, and vocally criticised Japan's aggression during the war. Although the conflict was presented to citizens as a sacred war, the royal came to question this. He wrote a scathing report about the brutality he witnessed, revealing chemical warfare experiments had been carried out on prisoners of war in Manchuria, and claimed this was fuelling Chinese resistance. The document was kept secret by military chiefs, and the public only became aware of it 50 years later." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3906746/Japan-s-100-year-old-Prince-Mikasa-fought-WWII-horrified-country-s-brutality-POWs-laid-rest.html#ixzz4P6JOGOe3
