Emperor of Japan

Shōwa Tennō

• The Emperor called Tenno (天皇 ) in Japanese, Currently the Emperor of Japan is the only remaining monarch in the world reigning under the title of “Emperor”

• The Imperial House of Japan is the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world.

• Head of Shinto, descendant of amaterasu(the great God who shines in the heaven). Tenno is not ordinary people, he is a arahitogami, a kami (deity) who is a human being, so doesn’t have a last name, the Constitution of Japan doesn’t give him citizenship. After WII, Showa clam to give up his Arahitogami, now most Japanese still think that Tenno represents its country.

• after12th century, JapaneseEmperors have nearly always been controlled by external political forces. Until Emperor Meiji, 122th Emperor of Japan reigning back in power.

Shōwa Tennō

• 1901-1989 born at Tokyo• Personal name Hirohito• 124th Emperor of Japan, reigning from 1926-1989.• He was the head of state under the limitition of the Constitution of

Emperor of Japan during Japan’s imperial expansion, militarization and involvement in WWII.

• Early Reign:

• 1927Shōwa financial crisis, new Prime Minster of Japan started expending military forces at Northeast China. Hirihito was working at Constitutionalism, wasn’t interfereing the Cabinet‘s policy.

• 1931 Established Manchukuo, puppet state in modern northeast China and Inner Mongolia.

• 1932 May 15 Incident: launched by rectionary elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by 11 young naval officers. Cabinet era ends.

• 1936 February 26 incident: A group of young Imperial Japanese Army (Imperial Way Faction) succeeded in assassinating leading officials and in occupying the government center of Tokyo, they failed to asassinate Priminister Keisuke Okada or secure control of the Imperial Palace. The period of “government by assassination” came to a close, and the military increased its control over the civilian government.

• WWII Era:

• 1937-1945: Second Sino-Japanese War, gobbled most East Asia. Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere announced at 1940.

• 1940, Hideki Tōjō was appointed Army Minister in the second Fumimaro Konoe Regime. He was strong supporter of the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. As the Army Minister, he continued to vastly expand the grueling war with China.

• 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Pacific War started.

• 1945: The United States dropped two Atomic bomb at Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

Hirihito agreed to accept Potsdam Declaration, the Unconditional surrender

included one condition: Not to abolished Tennō.

• Postwar reign

• U.S. General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Emperor Hirohito retain the throne. MacArthur saw the emperor as a symbol of the continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people. Some historians criticize the decision to exonerate the Emperor and all members of the imperial family who were implicated in the war, such as Prince Chichibu, Prince Asaka, Prince Higashikuni and Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, from criminal prosecutions.

• "months before the Tokyo tribunal commenced, MacArthur's highest subordinates were working to attribute ultimate responsibility for Pearl Harbor to Hideki Tōjō” by allowing "the major criminal suspects to coordinate their stories so that the Emperor would be spared from indictment.” According to John W. Dower, "This successful campaign to absolve the Emperor of war responsibility knew no bounds. 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.” According to Bix, "MacArthur's truly extraordinary measures to save Hirohito from trial as a war criminal had a lasting and profoundly distorting impact on Japanese understanding of the lost war.”

• The Emperor was not put on trial, but he was forced to explicitly reject (in the Ningen-sengen (人間宣言 )) the State Shinto claim that the Emperor of Japan was an arahitogami, i.e., an incarnate divinity

Yasukuni Shrine

• It is dedicated to those who died on behalf of the Empire of Japan. It lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men, women and children.

• It also houses one of the few Japanese war museums dedicated to World War II. The shrine is not only for soldiers but for anyone who died on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. As such there are relief workers, factory workers, citizens and those not of Japanese ethnicity such as Taiwanese and Koreans who served Japan. There are also commemorative statues to mothers and animals who perished in the war. Controversy arose over its enshrinement of 14 war criminals from World War II. Regardless the inclusion of their names causes political tension particularly with China who argues that it is evidence Japan denies any wrong doing during World War II. Supporters have argued that rejecting their names for enshrinement would remove them from the Empire of Japan's service, thus denying they existed or committed any crimes on behalf of the Emperor. Some far-left politicians see the shrine as a symbol of foreign invasion, while some far-right politicians consider the shrine a symbol of patriotism.

Issue of the Emperor's responsibility for war crimes

• Many historians see Emperor Hirohito as responsible for the atrocities committed by the imperial forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in World War. From 1931 Mukden Incident, 23member of royalty family