TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Princess Yuriko, the wife of wartime Emperor Hirohito’s brother and the oldest member of the imperial family, has died after her health deteriorated recently, palace officials said. She was 101.
Yuriko died Friday at a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said. It did not announce the cause of death, but Japanese media said she died of pneumonia.
Born in 1923 as an aristocrat, Yuriko married at age 18 to Prince Mikasa, the younger brother of Hirohito and the great-uncle of current Emperor Naruhito, months before the start of World War II.
She has recounted living in a shelter with her husband and their baby daughter after their residence was burned down in the U.S. fire bombings of Tokyo in the final months of the war in 1945.
Yuriko raised five children and supported Mikasa’s research into ancient Near Eastern history, while also serving her official duties and taking part in philanthropic activities, including promotion of maternal and child health. She outlived her husband and all three sons.
Her death reduces Japan’s rapidly dwindling imperial family to 16 people, including four men, as the country faces the dilemma of how to maintain the royal family while conservatives in the governing party insist on retaining male-only succession.
The 1947 Imperial House Law, which largely preserves conservative prewar family values, allows only males to take the throne and forces female royal family members who marry commoners to lose their royal status.
The youngest male member of the imperial family, Prince Hisahito — the nephew of Emperor Naruhito — is currently the last heir apparent, posing a major problem for a system that doesn’t allow empresses. The government is debating how to keep succession stable without relying on women.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, visiting South America to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 summits, issued a statement expressing “heartfelt condolences.”
“I cannot help but feel saddened to hear of the loss. I extend my heartfelt condolences along with other Japanese citizens,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a statement.
Yuriko had lived a healthy life as a centenarian before suffering a stroke and pneumonia in March. She enjoyed exercise in the morning while watching a daily fitness program on television, the Imperial Household Agency says. She also continued to read multiple newspapers and magazines and enjoyed watching news and baseball on TV. On sunny days, she sat in the palace garden or was wheeled in her wheelchair.
Yuriko was hospitalized after her stroke and had been in and out of intensive care since then. Her overall condition deteriorated over the past week, the Imperial Household Agency said.
This story corrects that Mikasa was current emperor’s great-uncle, not uncle.
FILE - Princess Yuriko of Mikasa, fourth left, with Crown Prince Akishino, from left, Crown Princess Kiko, Princess Kako, Princess Nobuko of Mikasa and Princess Akiko of Mikasa, waves during the New Year's appearance by the Japanese royal family at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Jan. 2, 2023. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - In this file photo provided by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan, Princess Yuriko, wife of the late Prince Mikasa, poses for a photo at her palace residence reception room in Tokyo, May 22, 2023. (Imperial Household Agency via AP, File)
In this file photo provided by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan, Japanese Prince Mikasa, right, and his wife Princess Yuriko talk at their residence in Tokyo, Nov. 16, 2015. (Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP, File)
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate is expected to be sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Samuel Woodward, who is now 27, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Southern California courtroom for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. There is no question about the sentence Woodward will receive because the jury’s verdict carries a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Defense attorney Ken Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.
Woodward was convicted this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.
Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the next day, his parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom and tried to reach him, but he didn’t respond.
Authorities launched an exhaustive search and said Bernstein’s family scoured his social media and saw he had communicated with Woodward on Snapchat. Authorities said Woodward told the family that Bernstein had gone to meet a friend in the park that night and didn’t come back.
Days later Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park. He had been repeatedly stabbed in the face and neck.
The question during Woodward's monthslong trial was not whether he killed Bernstein but why and the circumstances under which it happened. Prosecutors said Woodward was affiliated with the violent anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client didn't plan to kill anyone or hate Bernstein and faced challenging personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder.
The case took years to go to trial amid a series of delays and stoked public outcry in Southern California, where residents fanned out in 2018 to try to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly went missing.
Woodward testified during his trial and gave slow, delayed replies to lawyers' questions with his long hair partly covering his face.
Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and connected via a dating app in the months before the killing. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park and repeatedly stabbed Bernstein after trying to grab a cellphone he feared had been used to photograph him.
Morrison, the defense lawyer, said Woodward was confused about his sexuality after growing up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father openly criticized homosexuality.
But prosecutors told a different story. They said Woodward had repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and abruptly breaking off contact, while keeping a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions.
Authorities said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloodied blade and a host of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials in a search of his family's home in Newport Beach, California.
FILE - Orange County Deputy Sheriffs escort Samuel Woodward into Orange County Superior Court for opening statements of his murder trial for the stabbing death of Blaze Bernstein, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via Orange County Register, via AP, File)
FILE - A 2017 photograph of Samuel Woodward is displayed during Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison's closing arguments in Woodward's murder trial, at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif., Monday, July 1, 2024. (Leonard Ortiz/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Samuel Woodward testifies in Orange County Superior Court, June 13, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif. (Leonard Orti/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)
