Hirohito Opposed Japan’s Role in War, Son Says - The Jakarta Globe 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 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. “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.” Historians remain divided on whether the emperor was responsible for Japan’s aggression before and during WW II or whether he was in fact the puppet of the country’s military and political leaders.
Well, according to Herbert Bix, one of the foremost Japan scholars, and author of "Hirohito And the Making of Modern Japan", this is pure BS. Bix documents Hirohito's guidance of Japan in the 1920's and 1930's, and clearly demonstrates that Hirohito was not only in complete control of Japanese policy, but actively egged his military on in aggressive moves against Japan's neighbors. During the war, Bix writes, Hirohito was not only privy to, but directly responsible for, many of the excesses and atrocities committed by Japanese forces. After the war, the Emperor was protected by MacArthur's direct and indirect intervention in the war crimes process. This action was apparently taken in the mistaken belief that the Japanese public would be uncontrollable if Hirohito were to be tried as a war criminal. In actuality, many Japanese civilians wondered why he wasn't tried, and a significant majority, according to both Bix and John Dower (in his books "War Without Mercy" and "Embracing Defeat") were in favor of his trial as a war criminal.
You beat me to it DA, I was going to point out Bix. I do think that Joseph Grew's idea of keeping the Emperor was correct, and possibly is the underlying reason that the occupation of Japan was so relatively benign and the influence of the Communists was so limited. Putting the Son of the Sun Goddess on trial may have been awfully detrimental in the controlling of the occupied population. That he was responsible isn't really the point (to my mind), even though that seems to fly in the face of "justice". To occupy a nation of a hundred million with no (or limited) trouble was the point. But, of course the son would wish for his father to be remembered in the best light possible. Perhaps he too has bought into the propaganda the US used to keep Hirohito out of the dock?
The postwar population of Japan was more like 72 million; the "100 Million" figure was Japanese propaganda rhetoric. And, as Bix points out, it's reasonable to conclude there have been significant negative consequences involved in letting Hirohito skate on the war crimes charges. I believe it was just a mistake to think that the Japanese would have resisted occupation if the Hirohito had been put on trial. Joseph Grew was proved wrong on other issues involving Japanese mass psychology and I don't credit him with being that great an "expert" on Japanese reactions. MacArthur's staff "Japanese expert" had a close relative who had lived in Japan during the war and was married to one of the high Japanese court officials close to Hirohito which may have unduly colored his thinking. Having said that, I do realize that it was a judgment call, and there is room for logical, intelligent men to reasonably differ on the issue. I also believe that maintenance of the institution of the Emperor was important to a peaceful occupation, but not that the office had to be occupied by Hirohito personally.
I think we are in full agreement, perhaps I was a bit hasty in my "100 million" number, but it was the one which popped into my head right off. I think there were three options proposed for post-war Japan, and by both Grew and the MacArthur bunch. One was to have him adbicate and another member of the family take his place, and then put him on trial, another was to put him on trial and desolve the Imperial connection all together, and I think the last was to put him in a subservient position to the occupying CiC (which turned out to be "Big Mac") and acknowledge that he wasn't a diety but the institution of the monarchy would remain. That was the one chosen of course, I just believe this latest claim is a son trying to put his father in the best light possible, that is all.
Well, I think you are correct about Akihito's motivation. He may well believe it, but being in the position he occupies, he should know better. There was never any question but that the Emperor, whoever it was, would be subject to the Supreme Allied Commander's dictates. When the Japanese offered to accept the Potsdam Declaration terms with the provision that the Emperor would retain his sovereign perquisites, the answer that came back from the US government was unequivocal; from the moment of surrender, the Emperor would be subject to the orders of the Supreme Allied Commander. In other words, he would cease to be a sovereign ruler. Whether the institution of the Emperor would continue would be left, eventually, up to the Japanese people in compliance with the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter was, after all, one of the things the US was fighting to establish as an international ideal. As for abdication, that was always an option, but I don't remember anybody on the American side discussing it in terms of forcing it on Hirohito; I may be wrong on that point, however. Hirohito did consider it and several members of the Royal family urged Hirohito to abdicate, but he apparently never wanted to and thought of it only as a last resort to save the institution of the throne.
My thoughts echo Devilsadvocate's statement. The only reason he did not have a trial and then hung in Toyko, was due to "Bug Out Doug". After the blood thirsty attrocities in China, all bets were off.
