Hirohito (1901 - 1989) was the emperor of Japan from 1926 until his death, the longest reign in the recorded history of the Japanese monarchy. Known in Japan by his posthumous name, Emperor Shōwa, he presided over the years of military expansion, the Second World War, the surrender of 1945 and the postwar recovery. [1] Under the 1947 constitution his role was redefined as a symbol of the state without political power, and he spent his later decades in ceremonial duties and in research on marine biology. [2]
Early life and accession
Hirohito was born on 29 April 1901 at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo, the eldest son of Crown Prince Yoshihito, later the Taishō emperor. Following court custom he was raised away from his parents and educated at the Gakushūin peers' school and by a special institute established for his instruction. [1]
In 1921 he became the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad, visiting Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy, a journey that left a lasting impression on him. Later that year he was made regent because of his father's ill health, and on Yoshihito's death in December 1926 he acceded to the throne, beginning the era named Shōwa, or "enlightened peace". [2]
The years of expansion
Hirohito's early reign coincided with economic crisis, political assassinations and the growing autonomy of the armed forces. The Kwantung Army seized Manchuria in 1931 without cabinet authorisation, Japan left the League of Nations in 1933, and full-scale war with China followed in 1937. [1]
Under the Meiji constitution the emperor was sovereign and supreme commander, and imperial conferences endorsed the decisions for war, including the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The extent of Hirohito's personal responsibility for these decisions remains contested among historians: the postwar official account presented him as a constrained constitutional monarch, while later scholarship has argued for a more engaged role in military policy. [3] Japanese forces during these years carried out large-scale atrocities against civilians and prisoners across China and Southeast Asia.
Surrender
By the summer of 1945 Japan had lost its fleet and its cities were being destroyed by bombing. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war, Hirohito intervened in a deadlocked imperial conference to accept the Potsdam Declaration. [3]
On 15 August 1945 a recording of his voice was broadcast announcing the surrender, the first time the Japanese public had heard their emperor speak. [1]
Postwar reign
During the Allied occupation General Douglas MacArthur decided to retain the emperor as a means of securing public compliance, and Hirohito was not indicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, a decision that has remained a subject of debate. [2] In January 1946 he issued the statement known as the Humanity Declaration, repudiating the notion that the emperor was a living deity. [4]
The constitution that came into force in 1947 made the emperor "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people", with no powers of government. Hirohito travelled widely within Japan, made state visits to Europe in 1971 and to the United States in 1975, and received foreign dignitaries as head of state in ceremonial terms. [1]
Scholarship and death
A serious amateur scientist, Hirohito published research on hydrozoans and other marine organisms, maintained a laboratory at the Imperial Palace and was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. [2]
He died of cancer at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on 7 January 1989 and was succeeded by his son Akihito. His sixty-two-year reign framed the whole of Japan's twentieth-century transformation, and assessments of his conduct during the war years continue to divide historians in Japan and abroad. [3]
