Hirohito

Hirohito (born April 29, 1901, Tokyo, Japan—died January 7, 1989, Tokyo) was the emperor of Japan from 1926 until his death in 1989. He was the longest-reigning monarch in Japan’s history.

Hirohito was born at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo, the son of the Taishō emperor and grandson of the Meiji emperor. He was educated at the Peers’ School and at the Crown Prince’s Institute. Early in life he developed an interest in marine biology, on which he later wrote several books. In 1921 he visited Europe, becoming the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad. After his return he was named prince regent when his father retired because of mental illness. In 1924 Hirohito married the princess Nagako Kuni.

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Hirohito became emperor of Japan on December 25, 1926, following the death of his father. His reign was designated Shōwa (“Bright Peace,” or “Enlightened Harmony”). The Meiji Constitution (promulgated 1889) had invested the emperor with supreme authority, but in practice he generally gave his assent to policies formulated by his ministers and advisers. On occasion, however, he asserted his authority, most notably when he ordered the suppression of an attempted coup by several military officers in February 1936.

There has been considerable debate among historians about the role Hirohito played during Japan’s militaristic period from the early 1930s to 1945, the end of World War II. Many have asserted that he had grave misgivings about war with the United States and was opposed to Japan’s alliance with Germany and Italy (the Axis Powers) but that he was constrained to go along with the militarists who increasingly came to dominate the armed forces and the government. Other historians have claimed that Hirohito was actively involved in the planning of Japan’s expansionist policies from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (now northeastern China) in 1931 to the end of the war. Still others posit that the truth lies somewhere between those two interpretations.

Nonetheless, in August 1945, when Japan was facing defeat and opinion among the country’s leaders was divided between those advocating surrender and those insisting on a desperate defense of the home islands against an anticipated invasion by the Allied Powers, Hirohito settled the dispute in favour of those urging peace. He broke the precedent of imperial silence on August 15, when he made a national radio broadcast to announce Japan’s acceptance of the Allies’ terms of surrender. In a second historic broadcast, made on January 1, 1946, Hirohito repudiated the traditional quasi-divine status of Japan’s emperors.

Under the country’s new constitution, drafted by U.S. occupation authorities in 1946 and in effect from 1947, Japan became a constitutional monarchy. Sovereignty resided in the people—not in the emperor, whose powers were severely curtailed. The emperor was designated the “symbol of the state and of the unity of the people.” In an effort to bring the imperial family closer to the people, Hirohito began to make numerous public appearances and permitted publication of pictures and stories of his personal and family life. Those actions increased Hirohito’s popularity and helped preserve the Japanese imperial system.

In 1959 his oldest son, Crown Prince Akihito, married a commoner, Shōda Michiko, breaking a 1,500-year tradition. In 1971 Hirohito broke another tradition when he toured Europe and became the first reigning Japanese monarch to visit abroad. In 1975 he made a state visit to the United States, which included a highly publicized day trip to Disneyland in southern California and a meeting with Pres. Richard M. Nixon, the first time a Japanese emperor and a U.S. president had met. Upon his death in 1989, Hirohito was succeeded as emperor by Akihito.