54 Facts About Hirohito

Emperor Showa, commonly known in Western countries by his personal name Hirohito, was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989.

Hirohito was the longest-reigning historical Japanese emperor and one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the world.

Hirohito was the head of state under the Meiji Constitution during Japan's imperial expansion, militarization, and involvement in World War II.

Japan waged a war across Asia in the 1930s and 40s in the name of Hirohito, who was revered as a god.

Hirohito is referred to in Japanese by his posthumous name, Showa, which is the name of the era coinciding with his reign.

Hirohito was born in Tokyo's Aoyama Palace on 29 April 1901, the first son of 21-year-old Crown prince Yoshihito and 16-year-old Crown Princess Sadako.

Hirohito was the grandson of Emperor Meiji and Yanagiwara Naruko.

Ten weeks after he was born, Hirohito was removed from the court and placed in the care of Count Kawamura Sumiyoshi, who raised him as his grandchild.

The main aspect that they focused was on physical education and health, primarily because Hirohito was a sickly child, on par with the impartment or inculcation of values such as frugality, patience, manliness, self-control, and devotion to the duty at hand.

Hirohito was bestowed with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum.

Hirohito was the one who inculcated in the mind of the young Hirohito that there is a connection between the divine origin of the imperial line and the aspiration of linking it to the myth of the racial superiority and homogeneity of the Japanese.

Hirohito taught Hirohito that the empire of Japan was created and governed through diplomatic actions.

On 2 November 1916, Hirohito was formally proclaimed crown prince and heir apparent.

The departure of Prince Hirohito was widely reported in newspapers.

Hirohito was welcomed in the UK as a partner of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and met with King George V and Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

George V said that he treated his father like Hirohito, who was nervous in an unfamiliar foreign country, and that relieved his tension.

Hirohito enjoyed theater at the New Oxford Theatre and the Delhi Theatre.

Hirohito visited Edinburgh, Scotland, from the 19th to the 20th, and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws at the University of Edinburgh.

Hirohito stayed at the residence of John Stewart-Murray, 8th Duke of Atholl, for three days.

Prince Hirohito married his distant cousin Princess Nagako Kuni, the eldest daughter of Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni, on 26 January 1924.

On 25 December 1926, Hirohito assumed the throne upon the death of his father, Yoshihito.

The first part of Hirohito's reign took place against a background of financial crisis and increasing military power within the government through both legal and extralegal means.

Hirohito narrowly escaped assassination by a hand grenade thrown by a Korean independence activist, Lee Bong-chang, in Tokyo on 9 January 1932, in the Sakuradamon Incident.

On December 1,1937, Hirohito had given formal instruction to General Iwane Matsui to capture and occupy the enemy capital of Nanking.

Hirohito was very eager to fight this battle since he and his council had firmly believed that all it takes is a one huge blow that would bring forth the surrender of Chiang Kai-Shek.

Hirohito even gave an Imperial Rescript to Iwane when he returned to Tokyo, a year later, despite of the brutality that his officers had inflicted to the Chinese populace in Nanking, hence Hirohito had seemingly turned a blind eye and condone these monstrosities.

Hirohito justified himself to his chief cabinet secretary, Kenji Tomita, by stating:.

Hirohito secured the deployment of army air power in the Guadalcanal campaign.

On September of 1944, Hirohito declared that it must be his citizens' resolve to smash the evil purposes of the Westerners so that their imperial destiny might continue, but all along, it is just a mask for the urgent need of Japan to scratch a victory against the counter-offensive campaign of the Allied Forces.

Hirohito was quoted that he approved of such since if they won in that campaign, they would be finally having a room to negotiate with the Americans.

In early 1945, in the wake of the losses in the Battle of Leyte, Emperor Hirohito began a series of individual meetings with senior government officials to consider the progress of the war.

In February 1945, during the first private audience with the Emperor he had been allowed in three years, Konoe advised Hirohito to begin negotiations to end the war.

Some evidence shows that Hirohito had some involvement, but his power was limited by cabinet members, ministers and other people of the military oligarchy.

Some historians contend that Hirohito was directly responsible for the atrocities committed by the imperial forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in World War II.

Poison gas weapons, such as phosgene, were produced by Unit 731 and authorized by specific orders given by Hirohito himself, transmitted by the chief of staff of the army.

For example, Hirohito authorized the use of toxic gas 375 times during the Battle of Wuhan from August to October 1938.

Historians such as Herbert Bix, Akira Fujiwara, Peter Wetzler, and Akira Yamada assert that post-war arguments favoring the view that Hirohito was a mere figurehead overlook the importance of numerous "behind the chrysanthemum curtain" meetings where the real decisions were made between the Emperor, his chiefs of staff, and the cabinet.

American historian Herbert P Bix goes so far as to argue that Emperor Hirohito might have been the prime mover behind most of Japan's military aggression during the Showa Era.

Hirohito added that conspiracy to wage aggressive war was not illegal in 1937, or at any point since.

Hirohito considered the Japanese military operations as justified, because Chiang Kai-shek supported the boycott of trade operations by the Western Powers, particularly the United States boycott of oil exports to Japan.

Hirohito considered that to be self-defense operations which are not criminal.

The pre-war Meiji Constitution defined the emperor as "sacred" and all-powerful, but according to Whitehead, Hirohito's power was limited by ministers and the military.

Whitehead explained after World War II that Hirohito's humility was fundamental for the Japanese people to accept the new 1947 constitution and allied occupation.

US General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Emperor Hirohito retain the throne.

Hirohito was not merely presented as being innocent of any formal acts that might make him culpable to indictment as a war criminal, he was turned into an almost saintly figure who did not even bear moral responsibility for the war.

Hirohito was however persistent in the idea that the Emperor of Japan should be considered a descendant of the gods.

Hirohito was forced to resign from the House of Peers and his post at the Tokyo Imperial University, his books were banned, and an attempt was made on his life.

Hirohito's role was limited to matters of state as delineated in the Constitution, and in most cases his actions in that realm were carried out in accordance with the binding instructions of the Cabinet.

Hirohito played an important role in rebuilding Japan's diplomatic image, traveling abroad to meet with many foreign leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II and President Gerald Ford.

Hirohito was not only the first reigning emperor to travel beyond Japan, but the first to meet a President of the United States.

In France, Hirohito reunited with Edward VIII, who had abdicated in 1936 and was virtually in exile, and they chatted for a while.

The protests against Hirohito's visit condemned and highlighted what they perceived as mutual Japanese and West German complicity in and enabling of the American war effort against communism in Vietnam.

Hirohito was survived by his wife, his five surviving children, ten grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Hirohito is buried in the Musashi Imperial Graveyard in Hachioji, alongside his wife and his parents.