TOKYO: Japan’s Emperor Akihito, celebrating 20 years on the throne on Thursday, offered a rare defence of his father’s wartime record, saying Japanese aggression had been contrary to his wishes. The 75-year-old said he thought his father Hirohito had opposed Japan’s march to war, an unusual comment on the emperor who at the time was considered divine by his people but seen as an aggressor by the Allied powers. Akihito said that his father, posthumously called Emperor Showa in Japan after the name of his 1926-89 era, had as crown prince visited the site of the World War I battlefield of Verdun in France. “He had taken to heart the importance of maintaining peace,” Akihito said. “It is my perception that the events that led to war must have been contrary to what he would have wished.” The emperor has in the past talked about “difficulties” his father faced during the years when Japan took the path to war.