The late Emperor Hirohito was critical of Japan's decision to start a war with China and felt his military planners had underestimated the enemy's strength, according to a recently found diary chronicled by his chamberlain between 1939 and 1945, Tokyo publisher Bungeishunju Ltd. said Friday.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070310a1a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='377'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Emperor Hirohito </B> KYODO PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>Excerpts from the late Kuraji Ogura's diary will hit the stands Saturday in the monthly magazine Bungeishunju's April issue, the publisher said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Ogura wrote 600 pages of words uttered by Emperor Hirohito, posthumously called Emperor Showa, between May 1939 and June 1945.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>He was quoted as saying on Oct. 12, 1940: 'Shina –

is stronger than expected. Everybody made mistakes in war projections. Notably, the army of war specialists was wrong in observing the situation."

On Jan. 9, 1941: he said, "Japan had underestimated China. It is much wiser to cease the war as early as possible and to cultivate (Japan's) national power for some 10 years."

During a visit to Kyoto in December 1942, he is quoted as saying: "War cannot be contained midway once it has broken out. We had suffered a bitter experience in the Manchurian Incident," referring to the conflict between Japan and China that erupted in September 1931 in Manchuria, or northeastern China.

Imperial Japanese Army troops seized Manchuria five months after the Manchurian Incident, known in China as the Sept. 18 Incident. The conflict led to a war with China from 1937 to 1945.