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Hirohito was born
into the oldest
royal dynasty
in the world. He
not only possessed
absolute authority
as the nation's
spiritual leader,
but was himself
seen as divine. His
status and his
country's fortunes
were to change
dramatically in
the course of
his reign
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Despite outward 
conformity with
the traditional
trappings of the 
Empire, Hirohito
went against
palace protocol 
when he insisted
on choosing his
own wife, who
was, moreover,
from outside the
Imperial family. He
married Princess
Nagako, daughter
of an aristocratic
general, in 1924
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In 1921 Hirohito, 
then Crown Prince, 
took a step which
was unprecedented
in 2000 years of
royal history: he
left the shores of 
Japan and made a 
tour of state. He 
received a warm 
welcome in Great
Britain, where
George V made
him a general
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In 1926 Hirohito 
became emperor
on the death of his
father, Yoshihito.
In the early years
of his reign, there
were further steps 
towards democracy 
and multi-party 
government, but 
Japan was entering
a highly aggressive 
phase, and by the
Thirties the govern-
ment of Japan had
assumed a quasi-
Fascist character
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As Emperor, 
Hirohito stood at
the head of a vast 
military machine 
which flexed its 
muscles in war 
against China. The 
"China incident", as 
the war was called
in Japan, reached a
peak of ferocity in 
a hard-fought and 
vicious battle for 
Shanghai in 1937  
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Despite being 
Japan's supreme 
ruler, the scholarly 
and introspective 
Hirohito left much 
of the government's 
policy and executive 
decision-making to 
his cabinet and 
generals. He was
content to let the
generals pursue
the expansionist
dream in his name
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The surprise attack 
on the US naval 
base at Pearl Harbor 
- "a day that  will 
live in infamy," 
President Roosevelt 
called it - caught
the American fleet
off guard. Japan's
war machine quickly 
took  possession
of the Philippines, 
Malaya, Singapore, 
Burma and Indonesia
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Hirohito appointed Tojo prime minister the year before the Pearl Harbor attack.
Though seen as a Japanese Hitler, he was not a leader of any mass movement,
and he had no grand ideology apart from the traditional military code 
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Yamamoto, one of the great naval commanders, staked everything on the 
Pearl Harbor attack, believing Japan's only hope of winning a war with America 
was through a devastating pre-emptive strike
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To end the heavy 
losses which were
being incurred as
American forces 
reconquered Pacific 
islands one by one, 
President Truman
authorised the use
of atomic bombs 
against Japanese 
cities. The first 
device was dropped 
on Hiroshima on 
August 6 1945, the 
second on Nagasaki 
three days later
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The effect of the 
atomic destruction
of two cities was
swift. Hirohito
ordered his cabinet
to give up the
fight, and finally
they acquiesced.
Hirohito announced
to the people that
the war was lost,
but shame and the
arcane language of
tradition meant
the announcement
was couched in
such vague terms
that many people
did not even grasp
what Hirohito had
said to them
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After the war there were calls for Hirohito to be tried as a war criminal, as
the Nazi leaders had been at Nuremburg. But MacArthur resisted, judging that
the continuity of the Imperial institution could be made to work for the Allies;
Hirohito was happy to comply 
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General MacArthur
was proved right
in his decision to
preserve Japan's
monarchy. With
Emperor Hirohito
as its constitu-
tional monarch,
Japan was able
to remake itself
as a democracy,
and went on to
argue forcefully
for world peace
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Hirohito's natural 
inclination to take
a back seat in the
affairs of state 
now accorded with
his official role. 
He was rarely in
the public eye, but
when he was he cut
a thoughtful and 
diplomatic figure
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By the time of his 
death Hirohito had 
ruled for 62 years,  
42 of which had 
seen almost unint-
errupted  economic
growth. Postwar
Japan became one
of the strongest
economies in the
world, and had
changed in ways 
no-one, least of
all Hirohito, could
have foreseen
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