TV & VIDEO - Feb. 7, 1989

Japanese scholars, upset over a coming PBS docudrama that holds Japanese Emperor Hirohito fully responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, are attempting to block its airing. Barry Chase, PBS’ vice president for news and public affirs programs, is upset too. He maintains the 57-minute “Hirohito: Behind the Myth” “does not charge Hirohito with having been responsible, fully or otherwise. It does say (the emperor) was aware” of the planned attack “and did nothing to stop it, and may even have encouraged it. And it does raise questions about his moral culpability.” A typical criticism came from Edwin O. Reischauer, former U. S. Ambassador to Japan, who called the program “nonsense. . . . No emperor of Japan had any real power for many hundreds of years. It’s bad taste and so incorrect that it shouldn’t be shown,” he told the New York Times. PBS is planning a 20-minute response to the docudrama with its producer, Edward Behr, and some of his critics. PBS stations are scheduled to start airing the program around Feb. 25, the day after the late emperor’s funeral in Japan. KCET Channel 28 in Los Angeles will show it March 2, 7:35-9 p.m. The program features clips from newsreels and propaganda films and reenactments by actors.