What was his responsibility for the war?
Was it correct to completely exonerate him and imperial family?
>>59008
What would happen with Japan if he was sentenced and removed?
What was his responsibility for the war?
Was it correct to completely exonerate him and royal family?
You can't be responsible for something you didn't do, and the Showa Emperor did nothing.
Maybe a bit of a bitch to the army, but not immoral or responsible for anything that happened.
>>59200
Well, Italians were nowhere near as cruel as Japs
>>59008
Nope. Nip Emperors were largely figureheads. They may have a lot of cultural power but those cunts never seem to realize it.
Hell the Meiji restoration wasn't pulled off by the Emperor, but by Nobles who hated Tokugawa guts and just rallied behind the Emperor as a figurehead.
>>59228
The final decision to attack Pearl Harbor was made by him
There were voices for and against
Tojo took all blame upon himself
>>59008
No one knows how responsible he was. Any evidence that the Japanese government didn't destroy before the arrival of SCAP was destroyed by MacArthur himself.
Personally, I think he was just a political tool of the army and navy.
It was correct to exhonorate him in that MacArthur knew there would be no stable Japan, much less a Japan that would bend to America's will, without him. In that sense he went from being the army and navy's political tool to being MacArthur's.
Having him renounce his divinity over the radio to the country was a huge fucking deal, though. It can not be stressed how huge that was.
There are some asspained people though who like Hirohito didn't REALLY denounce his divinity in his speech, though.
>>59228
Meh, he did ordered the pearl harbour - kido koichi did testified that in court
Get your facts right mate. Its popular fact that japanese army and navy did not coorperate well with each other and never shared any infomation and intel, however they did with the emperor. Of course tojo is the most responsible, its absurd that hirohito is free from all the charges. He knew all about the war crimes and permitted it.
Hirohito's role is very, very complex. Muddled by overlapping accounts made worse by the suicides, blind devotion, nationalism, stubbornness, and destruction of evidence by both the Japanese and American occupation forces.
It's true Hirohito was something of a figurehead, and largely just a face for the real people in charge. His assassination was even attempted by said elements, and only failed because everything was breaking down. In the war it would have been very feasible for the Jap government to kill him and blame it on foreign elements, although the void left by it would have been unwanted by all in charge. That is the extent of his leverage over the people pulling the strings.
His approval of things like Pearl Harbor and appraisal of his troops actions in Nanking is hardly his own actions, the guy was supposed to act as the supreme authority to those people and just had to be a smiling face for them or get shot.
He was not totally innocent, no, but with or without him they would have happened. His death or conviction would hardly help speed up things in reconstruction and weren't worth further mass suicides and suffering
>>59409
This seems very reasonable.
>>59008
Yeah, the Showa Emperor really didn't do anything. He was technically the head of state, but no emperor had really exercised their veto right.
Moreover the Emperors never really said their own opinion just used some sort of vague archaic court speech.
The only thing he did do was end the war, against the wishes the army. He had to be secreted away from the Imperial palace without the army's knowledge to make his radio address calling for an end to the war. He was convinced he would be hanged by the Americans. Since that is what the Americans, at least in the media, said they would do. Which is one reason why the Japanese were hell bent on not signing a peace treaty of unconditional surrender.
Also the life of the Imperial family post-war is worse than any jail. They aren't treated as people, have no rights and aren't citizens. Their every move is controlled by the Imperial Household Agency. People who marry into the family aren't even allowed to make phone calls without the IHA's permission.
>>59228
Well he was complicit in and aware of the military's actions, but many say he was ultimately at the mercy of the military government and couldn't make decisions that would go against their will. He supposedly a weightless figurehead with divine status, but I wonder what would have actually happened if he did speak out and objected to the actions of the government. How would they silence him? Would they be willing to assassinate the figurehead of the Japanese people, especially one whose status in Japanese society was so revered?
>>59267
What's wrong about Pearl Harbor? As an American it was a horrifying ambush, but war's war. We'd do the same thing in their place with the same brutality. Hell we pretty much DID do the same thing.
>>59762
Hirohito would never have had the opportunity to speak out against the military to anyone who gave a shit. The Japanese Imperial Family is kept locked up tighter than a nun's cunt.
Plus it didn't help that he literally spoke archaic, overly formal Japanese that normal people couldn't understand.
>>59781
To the US, nothing, since you more or less let it happen as it gave you the perfect excuse to enter into the war. For Japan, it meant the beginning of the end for their campaign.
>>59200
He was a disgusting coward
>>59781
It was against the rules of war, but it worked for the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese war.
Frankly everything is OK if you win.
>>59781
IIRC they intended to break off relations formally prior to the attack, which is basically all the warning you need to give. That's really all Russia formally gave Japan prior to the invasion of Manchuria (due to time differences and scheduling errors, troops began crossing the border before the declaration of war, but the Japanese ambassador had been informally alerted at least a few hours before the invasion was supposed to begin)
Either way, FDR let it happen on purpose.
>>59963
>Frankly everything is OK if you win
This. Just look at America and its firebombs. Even McNamara said later that it was a war crime.
>>59963
I doubt anybody is going to follow rules of war that speak against decisive ambushes.
>>59008
>What was his responsibility for the war?
minimal, the Japanese army was essentially calling the shots and ran amok in China with little or no political or imperial control
>Was it correct to completely exonerate him and imperial family?
yes, in fact it was an excellent idea and one of the better decisions that the Americans made in WW2
