International
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Japanese Princess Mikasa dies

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Reuters :

Princess Mikasa, the oldest member of Japan’s royal family and great aunt to the emperor, died aged 101 on Friday in a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said.

She had been hospitalised since March after suffering a stroke and pneumonia and had been recuperating there following treatment in intensive care.

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Born Yuriko Takagi to an aristocratic family on 4 June 1923, the princess was 18 when she married the younger brother of wartime emperor Hirohito.

The couple had five children — two girls and three boys. She gave birth to her first, a daughter, in 1944 during World War II.

The imperial couple’s house burned down in an air raid and she was forced to stay in a shelter with her baby, according to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily.

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