Hirohito: Emperor of Japan
Hirohito was the 124th emperor of Japan. He was born on April 29, 1901 at Aoynama Palace in Tokyo, to Crown Prince Yoshihito and Empress Sadako. His grandfather was the Meiji emperor, Mutsuhito, Japans first modern emperor. (Meiji meaning Enlightened Ruler) Seventy days after his birth he was removed from his parents and entrusted to foster parents, a Vice Admiral of the Imperial Navy. When he died, Hirohito was returned to Akasaka Palace, which was a miniature version of the Palace at Versailles. Hirohito was an isolated child and suffered from a somewhat curved spine and a shuffle. He was not very big or strong but he was fairly shied, clumsy, and grave. At the age of eight he was sent to the Peers School where he was enrolled into a class of twelve boys. The head of the school was General Nogi Maresuke. This was the man who captured Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. Hirohito worshipped Nogi and Nogi took a particular interest in him. He tried to instill in the young boy the virtues of stoicism, hard work, and devotion to the nation. (Encyclopedia of World Biography, NP) When Emperor Mutsuhito died, General Nogi and his wife committed ritual suicide leaving Hirohito without a mentor. His education was continued by Admi
Hirohito had many concerns about defeat one of which he referred to with a comment to his Chief of Staff Sugiyama Hajime when he made the statement that the initial operations in the Philippines and Malaya would only take three months Hirohito said:"When you were War Minister you said the 'China Incident' would be over in five months-and it's not over yet. He was treated like a God having doctors wear silk gloves and tailors never touching him. " In his address to the people of Japan Hirohito stated he believed that the new weapon the allies had deployed (the atomic bomb) was, "A most cruel bomb the power of which to do is indeed incalculable. At a Cabinet meeting in 1941, when his ministers agitated for the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Emperor surprised them all by suddenly reciting a poem composed by his grandfather, the Emperor Meiji: 'In a world/ Where all the seas/ Are brethren/ Why then do wind and wave/ So stridently clash?' With that, he fell silent. He then took the "Reign Name" Showa meaning Enlightened Peace and was formally know as Showa Tenno. In September of 1913 when Hirohito was 11 years old he was nominated heir apparent to the Chrysanthemum throne. Hirohito's advisors advised him to not get too involved in the decisions about the war so, he followed their advice and gave consent to his government to implement whatever policies they thought fit. (Historic World Leaders, NP) Because Hirohito wasn't involved in as much policy as before he had more free time and privacy so he wrote several books on marine biology, as well as traveling to Europe and America and becoming the first Japanese monarch ever to do so while emperor. Unfortunately the decision to surrender did not come until after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When President Roosevelt pleaded for peace from Hirohito, he ignored the message. In March of 1921 Hirohito took a tour of Europe becoming the first crown prince of Japan to visit abroad. There were some issues about the members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who wanted to return to the emperor cult by reinstating Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine as well as the relation of the Shinto religion to the government. The main reason for this was that MacArthur believed that Hirohito was merely a puppet that his cabinet controlled. This sharp contrast could not have been more different.
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