Hirohito

Emperor Hirohito was Japan's 124th emperor who is vital to the history because he played a major role within world history. He was known as the Showa Tenno emperor. Showa is translated into "enlightened peace" and Tenno is translated into "heavenly sovereign." This is exceptionally ironic because he was the emperor during numerous disasters (Hirohito, 2005).

The worst war Japan had ever seen and a depression are just a few of the events that occurred throughout history. According to the Japanese constitution of 1889 the emperor had divine power over his country although his authority was based on religion and myth. The Japanese citizens viewed him as a divine figure and his word became what was thought of as the word of god (Hoyt, 1992). His wrath was severe as he devastated many countries including his own.

This is because of events such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the rape of Nanjing. He shocked his own country when he denounced the claims that he was a divine figure and a descendent of the sun god Amaterasu. This was the first time the Japanese people realized that their emperor was truly a mortal (Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 2003). He became what was known as Japan's most memorable emperor.

To completely understand Hirohito we must take a concise look at the Shinto religion. The Shinto religion was first recorded in 712A.D. in a book called Kojiki which means record of ancient things. It was also written in a book called Nihon Shoki, which means chronicles of Japan. Two deities created Japan. A male being named Izanagi and a female being named Isonomy (Mackenzie, 1994).

There names translated into "he who invites" and "she who invites." After Izanami died Izanagi created Amaterasu which is the equivalent to what we think of as a sun goddess. Her name means heavenly light. It was thought that Izanagi then sent Amaterasu to rule the heavens. The deities discussed and then decided that Amaterasu's descendents should rule the land. Amaterasu's great grandson became Japan's first emperor (Mackenzie, 1994).

This means all of Japan's emperors were descendents of a god. This is why the Japanese believed that there emperor was a god, and not a mortal man. Hirohito was an interesting individual. He was born on April 29th, 1901 in the Aoyama palace in Tokyo (Hirohito, 2005).

His father was Yoshihito the Taisho emperor, and his mother was princess Sudako. He was the eldest of four sons. He was taken away from his mother when he was only a few months old, and given to count Sumiyoshi Kawamura. They did this to protect him from the social life of the palace and this is mostly because colds and fevers were frequent (Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 2003).

Sumiyoshi took care of him until 1905 when he was taken back to the castle. At the age of seven he was enrolled at Gakushuin or peers' school. He was taught mostly by army and naval officers. His principal was Maresuke Nogi the victorious infantry general of the Russo-Japanese war (Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 2003).

Nogi took special pride in teaching Hirohito and even went as far as to give him private classes. Sadly, Maresuke Nogi committed suicide on the day of Mutsuhito's funeral. He used the ceremonial suicide of junshi. This means "following your lord into death?" (Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 2003).

Mutsuhito was Hirohito's grandfather, he was known as Emperor Meiji. After Nogi killed himself, Heihachiro Togo became his mentor. Hirohito's father, the Taisho emperor, took power in 1912. He then went on to finish peers' school in 1914 (Hirohito, 2005).

He became a crown prince and graduated crown prince's school in 1921. He then went on to married his distant cousin, princess Nagako. This took place on January 26th, 1924. She was the eldest daughter of prince Kuniyoshi. Many opposed the wedding because she was color blind and would taint the royal blood line. They had there first child (a girl) in December of 1926 (Hirohito, 2005).

They had seven children all together. This was five girls and two boys. In 1933 his heir to the throne was born, Prince Akihito. Hirohito took power on December 25, 1926 after his father's death (Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 2003).

The new emperor was the first Japanese monarch in several hundred years whose biological mother was his predecessor's official wife. His formal enthronement took place in Kyoto in November of 1928 (Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 2003). That same year aggressive military units in Manchuria assainated the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin. The prime minister at the time was Giichi Tanaka. He did nothing about the assassination, so Hirohito forced him into resignation (Hoyt, 1992).

Many actions like this challenged the emperor. In between 1921 and 1944 there were no less then sixty four incidents of right winged political violence. Hirohito helped make Japan a super power by expanding the military and creating military alliances. In the beginning of world war two Hirohito sent troops throughout China. The Japanese started the war officially in 1937. The Japanese were essentially destroying china (Wetzler, 1998).

Disturbingly, their policy was kill all, steal all, and burn all. They would try not to leave any survivors in the villages and towns they destroyed. Hirohito's military upbringing helped spawn this policy. The most famous was the rape of Nanjing. There were numerous girls raped and killed (Wetzler, 1998).

Some were even raped to death by hundreds of soilders. The League of Nations did not approve Japans war against China. When the League asked Japan to remove their soldiers, Japan quit the League and formed its own alliances. On November 25th, 1936 Japan and Nazi Germany created the anti-comintern pact (Hoyt, 1998).

This pact was specifically directed against the Soviet Union. So therefore if the Soviet Union attacked Germany or Japan the other would come to aide their comrades in battle. They also weren't allowed to make pacts with the Soviet Union. In 1937 Italy joined the pact and this created the famous Axis powers. They were brought together by their determination to fight communist uprisings in their countries (Hoyt, 1998).

On December 7, 1941 America was changed forever. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This was the first attack on American soil in world war two. Emperor Hirohito knew about the attack for a month before it happened. He and all his officials agreed that America would get involved - so they attacked first. This was an extremely unwise decision (Sherrow, 1994).

This