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Hirohito, the Showa Emperor, (April 29, 1901 - January 7, 1989) reigned
over Japan from 1926 to 1989. He was known in the West by his given name Hirohito (he had no surname). He was the 124th Emperor of Japan. His reign
was the longest of all Japanese emperors.
Biography
He was born at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo, the first son of then-Crown
Prince Yoshihito and then-Crown Princess Sadako. His childhood title was
Michi no miya (Prince Michi). He became heir apparent upon the death of his
grandfather, the Emperor Meiji, on July 30, 1914. His formal investiture as
Crown Prince took place on November 2, 1916.
He attended the boys' department of Gakushuin Peer's School from 1908 to
1914 and then at a special institute for the Crown Prince
(Togu-gogakumonsho) from 1914 to 1921. On November 29, 1921, he became
regent of Japan, in place of his ailing father. In 1922, Prince Regent
Hirohito took a six month tour of the United Kingdom and five other European
countries, thus becoming the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad.
 He married his distant cousin Princess Nagako, the eldest daughter of
Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi, on January 26, 1924. There were seven children from
the marriage:
- Princess Teru (Teru no miya Shigeko), b. December 9, 1925, d. July 23,
1961; m. October 10 1943 Prince Morihiro (b. May 6, 1916, d. February 1,
1969), the eldest son of Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and his wife,
Princess Toshiko, the eighth daughter of of Emperor Meiji; lost status as
imperial family members, October 14, 1947.
- Princess Hisa ( Hisa no miya Sichiko), b. September 10, 1927, d. March
8, 1928.
- Princess Taka ( Taka no miya Kazuko), b. September 30, 1929, d. May
29, 1989; m. May 5, 1950 Mr. Takatsukasa Toshimichi (b. 1923, d. January
26, 1966), eldest son of former Prince Takatsukasa Nubusuke [peer].
- Princess Yori (Yori no miya Atsuko), b. March 7, 1931; m. October 10,
1952 Mr. Ikeda Takamasa (b. 1927), eldest son of former Marquis Ikeda
Nobemasa.
- Crown Prince Akihito (now HM The Emperor), b. December 23, 1933; m.
April 10, 1959 Miss Shoda Michiko (b. October 24, 1934), elder daughter of
Mr. Shoda Hidesaburo, former president and chairman of Nisshin Flour
Miling Company.
- Prince Hitachi (Hitachi no miya Masahito), b. November 28, 1935; m.
October 30, 1964 Miss Tsugaro Hanako (b. July 19, 1940), fourth daughter
of former Count Tsugaru Yoshitaka.
- Princess Suga (Suga no miya Takako), b. March 2, 1939; m. March 3,
1960 Mr. Shimazu Hisanaga, son of former Count Shimazu Hisanori.
 In December, 1926, after the death of his father Yoshihito, he succeeded
to the throne and was entitled Showa (Enlightened Peace). The new emperor
had the distinction of being the first Japanese monarch in several hundred
years whose biological mother was his predecessor's official wife.
The first part of Hirohito's reign as sovereign (between 1926 and 1945)
took place against a background of increasing military power within the
government, through both legal and extralegal means. The Japanese Imperial
Army and Imperial Navy had held veto power over the formation of cabinets
since 1900, and between 1921 and 1944 there were no less than 64 incidents
of right-wing political violence, most notably the assassination of moderate
Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai in 1932. From that time on, the military
clique held almost all political power in Japan, and pursued policies that
eventually Japan to fight the second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, many believed that the Showa
Emperor was an evil mastermind behind the war while others claimed that he
was simply a powerless figurehead. Billions of people in China, Taiwan,
Korea and South-East Asia see Hirohito as Asia's Hilter of World War II and
still study why history had no War Criminal trial. Because of this, very few
average street people in Asia take the Japanese Royal family very seriously.
 Up until soon before the start of the war, Hirohito behaved strictly
according to protocol, remaining at a distance from the decision making
processes. On September 4, 1941, the Japanese Cabinet met to consider the
war plans prepared by Imperial General Headquarters, and decided that:
- Our Empire, for the purpose of self-defense and self-preservation,
will complete preparations for war ... [and is] ... resolved to go to war
with the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands if necessary.
Our Empire will concurrently take all possible diplomatic measures
vis-à-vis the United States and Great Britain, and thereby endeavor to
obtain our objectives ... In the event that there is no prospect of our
demands being met by the first ten days of October through the diplomatic
negotiations mentioned above, we will immediately decide to commence
hostilities against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.
The "objectives" to be obtained were clearly defined: a free hand to
continue with the conquest of China and South-east Asia, no increase in US
or British military forces in the region, and cooperation by the West "in
the acquisition of goods needed by our Empire".
On the 5th September, Prime Minister Konoe informally submitted a draft
of the decision to the Emperor, just one day in advance of the Imperial
Conference at which it would be formally implemented. Hirohito was deeply
concerned by the decision to place "war preparations first and diplomatic
negotiations second" and announced his intention to break with
centuries-old protocol and, at the Imperial Conference on the following
day, directly question the chiefs of the Army and Navy general staffs - a
quite unprecedented action. Konoe quickly persuaded Hirohito to summon
them for a private conference instead, at which the Emperor made it plain
that a peaceful settlement was to be pursued "up to the last". Chief of
Naval General Staff Admiral Osami Nagano, a former Navy Minister and
vastly experienced, later told a trusted colleague "I have never seen the
Emperor reprimand us in such a manner, his face turning red and raising
his voice."
Nevertheless, all speakers at the Imperial Conference were united in
favor of war rather than diplomacy. Baron Yoshimichi Hara, President of
the Imperial Council and the Emperor's representative, then questioned
them closely, producing replies to the effect that war would only be
considered as a last resort from some, and silence from others.
At this point, the sovereign astonished all present by addressing the
conference personally, and in breaking the tradition of Imperial silence
left his advisors "struck with awe". (Prime Minister Konoe's description
of the event.) Emperor Hirohito stressed the need for peaceful resolution
of international problems, expressed regret at his ministers' failure to
respond to Baron Hara's probing, and recited a poem written by his
grandfather, the Emperor Meiji which, he said, he had read "over and over
again":
- Methinks all the people of the world are brethren, then.
- Why are the waves and the wind so unsettled nowadays?
Recovering from their shock, the ministers hastened to express their
profound wish to explore all possible peaceful avenues. The war
preparations continued without the slightest change, however, and within
weeks Cabinet would replace the insufficiently belligerent Konoe with the
hard line General Hideki Tojo. On December 8th (December 7th in Hawaii)
1941, in simultaneous attacks, Japanese forces struck at the US Fleet in
Pearl Harbor and began the invasion of South-East Asia. From here, there
was no turning back.
With the nation now fully committed to the war, Emperor Hirohito put
aside his doubts and acted as a devoted Japanese patriot, taking a keen
interest in military progress and doing all he could to boost morale. To
begin with, the news was all good. As the tide of war gradually began to
turn (around late 1942 and early 1943), the flow of information to the
palace gradually began to bear less and less relation to reality. In the
first six months of war, all the major engagements had been victories.
Throughout the following years, the sequence of drawn, and then decisively
lost engagements were also reported as great victories. Only gradually did
it become apparent to the Emperor (and to his people in the home islands)
that the situation was very grim. American air raids on the cities of
Japan starting in 1944 made a mockery of the unending tales of victory.
In early 1945, in the wake of the loss of Leyte, the Emperor began a
series of individual meetings with senior government officials to consider
the progress of the war. All bar one advised continuing. The exception was
ex-Prime Minister Konoe, who feared a communist revolution even more than
defeat and urged a negotiated surrender. Hirohito took the view that peace
was essential but that the armed forces would have to engineer a
conspicuous military victory somewhere in order to provide a stronger
bargaining position. With each passing week this became less likely.
Japan's ally Germany was defeated in May 1945. In April the Soviet Union
issued notice that it would not renew its neutrality agreement. In June,
the cabinet reassessed the war strategy, only to decide more firmly than
ever on a fight to the last man. This was officially affirmed at a brief
Imperial Council meeting, to which the Emperor listened in stony-faced
silence.
The following day, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Koichi Kido prepared a
draft document which summarized the hopeless military situation and
proposed a negotiated settlement. In private, the Emperor warmly approved
of it and authorized Kido to circulate it discreetly amongst the less
hawkish cabinet members. By mid-June the cabinet had agreed to to approach
the Soviet Union to act as a mediator, though not before the bargaining
position had been improved by a repulse of the coming Allied invasion of
mainland Japan.
On the 22nd of June, Hirohito broke tradition once again to speak to
his ministers, saying "I desire that concrete plans to end the war,
unhampered by existing policy, be speedily studied and that efforts be
made to implement them." The attempt to negotiate a peace via the Soviet
Union came to nothing: the Allies were determined not to settle for
anything short of "unconditional surrender", and as late as July 1945
neither the Emperor nor his government were prepared to consider that
option.
On August 15, 1945, following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and the entry of Russia into the war against Japan, Hirohito made
the radio broadcast announcing the unconditional surrender of Japan's
military forces (known as Gyokuon-housou). Despite pressures to try him
for war crimes by numerous leaders, among them President Harry S. Truman,
US General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Hirohito remain Emperor to keep
him as a symbol of continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people.
Hirohito was spared trial and retained the throne, but Hirohito was forced
to explicitly reject the traditional claim that the Emperor of Japan was
divine; a descendant of the Sun Goddess. The imperial title was thus
transformed from 'imperial sovereign' to 'constitutional monarch' in 1946.
It should, however, be noted that immediately after this explicit
repudiation of divinity, he implicitly reaffirmed it by asking the
occupation authorities for permission to worship an ancestress and then
worshipping the Sun Goddess; this reaffirmation would have been
comprehensible to all Japanese though not necessarily by the occupation
authorities.
After he abandoned his divinity, the status of Hirohito is deliberately
vague. While Hirohito is usually seen as a head of state, there is still a
broad dispute about whether he became simply a citizen or something else.
Many scholars claim that today's ten'no (usually translated into Emperor
of Japan in English) is not an emperor. That view determines whether Japan
is a democratic republic or a constitutional monarchy. See Emperor of
Japan article for discussion of the position of emperor of Japan.
Regardless, until his death in 1989, Hirohito was an active figure in
Japanese life, and performed many of the duties we commonly associate with
a figurehead head of state. The emperor and his family maintained a strong
public presence, often holding public walkabouts and making public
appearances on special events and holidays. He also played an important
role in rebuilding Japan's diplomatic image, traveling abroad to meet with
many foreign leaders, including numerous America presidents and Britain's
Elizabeth II.
In his lifetime, he was interested in marine biology, and the Imperial
Palace contained a laboratory from which Hirohito published several papers
in the field.
Divinity
He was well known for his claim of divinity during World War II.
According to the Japanese constitution of 1889, Hirohito had a divine
power over his country, which was derived from the mythology of the
Japanese Imperial Family who were the offspring of the creator of Japan or
Amaterasu.
In 1946, he disclaimed his divinity (so-called Nin'gen'-sengen).
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