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Hirohito / Emperor Shōwa
裕仁 / 昭和天皇
Hirohito in dress uniform.jpg
Emperor of Japan
Reign December 25, 1926 –
January 7, 1989
Enthronement November 10, 1928
Predecessor Taishō
Successor Akihito
Prime Ministers
Spouse Empress Kōjun
Princess Teru
Princess Hisa
Princess Taka
Princess Yori
Emperor Akihito
Prince Hitachi
Princess Suga
Full name
Hirohito (裕仁)
House Imperial House of Japan
Father Taishō
Mother Teimei
Born (1901-04-29)April 29, 1901
Aoyama Palace, Tokyo, Japan
Fukiage Palace, Tokyo, Japan
Burial February 24, 1989
Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan



Early life

Hirohito in 1902 as an infant


Prince Hirohito and British Prime Minister Lloyd George, 1921

When his grandfather, Emperor Meiji, died on July 30, 1912, Hirohito's father, Yoshihito, assumed the throne; Hirohito became the heir apparent. At the same time, he was formally commissioned in both the army and navy as a second lieutenant and ensign, respectively, and was also decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum. In 1914, he was promoted to the ranks of lieutenant in the army and sub-lieutenant in the navy, then to captain and lieutenant in 1916. He was formally proclaimed Crown Prince and heir apparent on November 2, 1916; but an investiture ceremony was not strictly necessary to confirm this status as heir to the throne.


During Hirohito's regency, a number of important events occurred:



Marriage and issue

Prince Hirohito and his wife Princess Nagako





In November 1928, the Emperor's ascension was confirmed in ceremonies (sokui) which are conventionally identified as "enthronement" and "coronation" (Shōwa no tairei-shiki); but this formal event would have been more accurately described as a public confirmation that his Imperial Majesty possesses the Japanese Imperial Regalia, also called the Three Sacred Treasures, which have been handed down through the centuries.

Early reign

Emperor Hirohito after his enthronement ceremony in 1928, dressed in sokutai
Imperial Standard as Emperor
Hirohito in his early years as Emperor


Hirohito narrowly missed assassination by a hand grenade thrown by a Korean independence activist, Lee Bong-chang in Tokyo on January 9, 1932, in the Sakuradamon Incident.



Sino-Japanese War and World War II


Entering World War II

Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and parts of China in 1937 (the Second Sino-Japanese War). Hirohito never really objected to China's invasion. it had been recommended to him by his chiefs of staff and prime minister Fumimaro Konoe. His main concern seems to have been the possibility of an attack by the Soviet Union in the north. His questions to his chief of staff, Prince Kan'in, and minister of the army, Hajime Sugiyama, were mostly about the time it could take to crush Chinese resistance.

According to Akira Fujiwara, Hirohito personally ratified the Japanese Army's proposal to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners on August 5. And the works of Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno show that the Emperor authorized, by specific orders (rinsanmei), the use of chemical weapons against the Chinese. During the invasion of Wuhan, from August to October 1938, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions, despite the resolution adopted by the League of Nations on May 14 condemning Japanese use of toxic gas.

On September 27, 1940, ostensibly under Hirohito's leadership, Japan formed Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, forming the Axis Powers. Before that, in July 1939, the Emperor quarreled with his brother, Prince Chichibu, who was visiting him three times a week to support the treaty, and reprimanded the army minister Seishirō Itagaki. But after the success of the Wehrmacht in Europe, the Emperor consented to the alliance.







Emperor Hirohito riding Shirayuki during an Army inspection in August 1938




The seas of the four directions—
all are born of one womb:



As war preparations continued, Prime Minister Konoe found himself more and more isolated and gave his resignation on October 16. He justified himself to his chief cabinet secretary, Kenji Tomita :



The Emperor as head of the Imperial General Headquarters in 1943


On November 3, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the attack on Pearl Harbour to the Emperor. On November 5, Emperor Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for a war against the Occident and had many meetings with the military and Tōjō until the end of the month. On December 1, an Imperial Conference sanctioned the "War against the United States, United Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Netherlands." On December 8 (December 7 in Hawaii) 1941, in simultaneous attacks, Japanese forces struck at the US Fleet in Pearl Harbour and in the Philippines and began the invasion of Malaysia.



The Emperor with his wife empress Kōjun and their children in 1941



Civilian deaths and suicides



Emperor and atomic bomb

Japan was doing basic research on the atomic bomb, However, even if according to one Japanese source, Hirohito would have been opposed to the atomic bomb plan from the beginning and thought that use of an atomic bomb would bring about the extermination of mankind , the Navy (F-go) and Army (Ni-go) atomic bomb research projects were in operation until the end of world war II.

On August 15, 1945, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he made apparent reference to the atomic bomb in his Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War: "Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should We continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization." However, in his first ever press conference given in Tokyo in 1975, when he was asked what he thought of the bombing of Hiroshima, the Emperor answered: "It's very regrettable that nuclear bombs were dropped and I feel sorry for the citizens of Hiroshima but it couldn't be helped ( Shikata ga nai) because that happened in wartime."

Last days of the war



The following day, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Kōichi Kido prepared a draft document which summarized the hopeless military situation and proposed a negotiated settlement. According to some commentators, the Emperor privately approved of it and authorized Kido to circulate it discreetly amongst less hawkish cabinet members; others suggest that the Emperor was indecisive, and that the delay cost many tens of thousands of lives. Extremists in Japan were also calling for a death-before-dishonor mass suicide, modeled on the " 47 Ronin" incident. By mid-June 1945, the cabinet had agreed to approach the Soviet Union to act as a mediator for a negotiated surrender, but not before Japan's bargaining position had been improved by repulse of the anticipated Allied invasion of mainland Japan.


On August 9, 1945, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war, Emperor Hirohito told Kido to "quickly control the situation" because "the Soviet Union has declared war and today began hostilities against us." On August 10, the cabinet drafted an " Imperial Rescript ending the War" following the Emperor's indications that the declaration did not compromise any demand which prejudiced the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler.

On August 12, 1945, the Emperor informed the imperial family of his decision to surrender. One of his uncles, Prince Asaka, asked whether the war would be continued if the kokutai (national polity) could not be preserved. The Emperor simply replied "of course." On August 14, the Suzuki government notified the Allies that it had accepted the Potsdam Declaration. On August 15, a recording of the Emperor's surrender speech was broadcast over the radio (the first time the Emperor was heard on the radio by the Japanese people) signifying the unconditional surrender of Japan's military forces. The historic broadcast is known as the Gyokuon-hōsō ("Jewel Voice Broadcast").

Objecting to the surrender, die-hard army fanatics attempted a coup d'état by conducting a full military assault and takeover of the Imperial Palace. Known as the Kyūjō Incident, the physical recording of the surrender speech was hidden and preserved overnight, and the coup was quickly crushed on the Emperor's order.

The surrender speech noted that "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage" and ordered the Japanese to "endure the unendurable" in surrender. It was the first time the public had heard the Emperor's voice. The speech, using formal, archaic Japanese was not readily understood by many commoners. According to historian Richard Storry in A History of Modern Japan, the Emperor typically used "a form of language familiar only to the well-educated" and to the more traditional samurai families.

Issue of the Emperor's responsibility for war crimes


The issue of Hirohito's responsibility for war crimes is a debate regarding how much real control the Emperor had over the Japanese military during the two wars. Officially, the imperial constitution, adopted under Emperor Meiji, gave full power to the Emperor. Article 4 prescribed that, "The Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution," while, according to article 6, "The Emperor gives sanction to laws and orders them to be promulgated and executed," and article 11, "The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and the Navy." The Emperor was thus the leader of the Imperial General Headquarters.

What is known is gas weapons, such as phosgene, were produced by Unit 731 and authorized by specific orders given by Hirohito himself, transmitted by the chief of staff of the army. For example, Hirohito authorised the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the battle of Wuhan from August to October 1938.


Historians such as Herbert Bix, Akira Fujiwara, Peter Wetzler, and Akira Yamada assert that the post-war view focusing on imperial conferences misses the importance of numerous "behind the chrysanthemum curtain" meetings where the real decisions were made between the Emperor, his chiefs of staff, and the cabinet. Historians such as Fujiwara and Wetzler, based on the primary sources and the monumental work of Shirō Hara, have produced evidence suggesting that the Emperor worked through intermediaries to exercise a great deal of control over the military and was neither bellicose nor a pacifist, but an opportunist who governed in a pluralistic decision-making process. American historian Herbert P. Bix argues that Emperor Hirohito might have been the prime mover of most of the events of the two wars.

The view promoted by both the Japanese Imperial Palace and the American occupation forces immediately after World War II portrayed Emperor Hirohito as a powerless figurehead behaving strictly according to protocol, while remaining at a distance from the decision-making processes. This view was endorsed by Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita in a speech on the day of Hirohito's death, in which Takeshita asserted that the war had broken out against (Hirohito's) wishes. Takeshita's statement provoked outrage in nations in East Asia and Commonwealth nations such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. For historian Fujiwara, however, "the thesis that the Emperor, as an organ of responsibility, could not reverse cabinet decision, is a myth fabricated after the war."


In the years immediately after Hirohito's death, the debate in Japan was fierce. Susan Chira reported that, "Scholars who have spoken out against the late Emperor have received threatening phone calls from Japan's extremist right wing." One example of actual violence occurred in 1990 when the mayor of Nagasaki, Hitoshi Motoshima, was shot and critically wounded by a member of the ultranationalist group, Seikijuku; Motoshima managed to recover from the attack. In 1989, Motoshima had broken what was characterized as "one of (Japan's) most sensitive taboos" by asserting that Emperor Hirohito bore responsibility for World War II.


Postwar reign

Gaetano Faillace's photo of General MacArthur and the Emperor at Allied GHQ in Tokyo. September 17, 1945.


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.


Imperial status

The Emperor visited Hiroshima in 1947.

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. This was motivated by the fact that, according to the Japanese constitution of 1889, the Emperor had a divine power over his country, which was derived from the shinto belief that the Japanese Imperial Family was the offspring of the sun goddess Amaterasu. Hirohito was however persistent in the idea that the emperor of Japan should be considered a descendant of the gods. In December 1945 he told his vice-grand chamberlain Michio Kinoshita: "It is permissible to say that the idea that the Japanese are descendants of the gods is a false conception; but it is absolutely impermissible to call chimerical the idea that the emperor is a descendant of the gods." In any case, the "renunciation of divinity" was noted more by foreigners than by Japanese, and seems to have been intended for the consumption of the former. The theory of a constitutional monarchy had already had some proponents in Japan. In 1935, when Tatsukichi Minobe advocated the theory that sovereignty resides in the states, of which the emperor is just an organ (the tennō kikan setsu), it caused a furor. He was forced to resign from the House of Peers and his post at the Tokyo Imperial University, his books were banned and an attempt was made on his life. Not until 1946 was the tremendous step made to alter the Emperor's title from "imperial sovereign" to "constitutional monarch".


While Emperor Hirohito was usually seen abroad as a head of state, there is still a broad dispute about whether he became a common citizen or retained special status related to his religious offices and participations in Shinto and Buddhist calendar rituals. Many scholars claim that today's tennō (usually translated Emperor of Japan in English) is not an emperor.

The Empress, First Lady Betty Ford, the Emperor and U.S. President Gerald Ford at the White House prior to a state dinner held in honour of the Japanese head of state for the first time. October 2, 1975.


The Emperor and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Tokyo, November 9, 1983



Yasukuni Shrine

Emperor Hirohito maintained an official boycott of the Yasukuni Shrine after it was revealed to him that Class-A war criminals had secretly been enshrined after its post-war rededication. This boycott lasted from 1978 until the time of his death. This boycott has been maintained by his son Akihito, who has also refused to attend Yasukuni.


For journalist Masanori Yamaguchi, who analyzed the "memo" and comments made by the emperor in his first-ever press conference in 1975, the emperor's evasive and opaque attitude about his own responsibility for the war and the fact he said that the bombing of Hiroshima "could not be helped","-Does your majesty feel responsibility for the war itself, including the opening of hostilities ? -I can't answer that kind of question because I haven't thoroughly studied the literature in this field, and so I don't really appreciate the nuances of your words." could mean that the emperor was afraid that the enshrinement of the war criminals at Yasukuni would reignite the debate over his own responsibility for the war.

Death and state funeral

Hirohito's tomb in Hachiōji, Tokyo



On February 24, Emperor Hirohito's state funeral was held, and unlike that of his predecessor, it was formal but not conducted in a strictly Shinto manner. A large number of world leaders attended the funeral, including King Juan Carlos I of Spain, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Baudouin of Belgium, King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, King Hussein of Jordan, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, Secretary-General of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, U.S. President George H. W. Bush, French President François Mitterrand, The Duke of Edinburgh, and many others. Emperor Hirohito is buried in the Imperial mausoleum in Hachiōji, alongside Emperor Taishō, his father.

Titles and styles

Monarchical styles of
Emperor Shōwa
Imperial Seal of Japan.svg
Reference style His Imperial Majesty
Spoken style Your Imperial Majesty
Alternative style Sir
  • 25 December 1926 – 7 January 1989: His Imperial Majesty The Emperor of Japan
  • Posthumous title: His Imperial Majesty Emperor Shōwa


National honours

  • Collar and Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum
  • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Golden Kite (abolished in 1947)
  • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure

Foreign honours

  •  Brazil : Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
  •  Poland : Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
  •  Finland : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland; conferred in 1942 (Finland and Japan were on the same side in World War II 1941–1944), the swastika collar was replaced by fir cross collar within the state visit of the president of Finland Mauno Koivisto in 1986
  •  Norway : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav
  •  Spain : Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
  •  Sweden : Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
  •  United Kingdom : Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – conferred in May 1921, revoked in 1941
  •  United Kingdom : Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) – conferred in May 1921, revoked in 1941.
  •  United Kingdom : Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG); conferred in 1929, revoked in 1941, restored in 1971
  •  United Kingdom : Honorary General in the British Army; conferred in May 1921
  •  United Kingdom : Honorary Field-Marshal in the British Army; conferred in June 1930, revoked in 1941.
  •  United Kingdom : Fellow of the Royal Society of London


Image Name Birth Marriage Issue
Teru-no-miya Shigeko 1941-nihongami.jpg Princess Teru December 6, 1925
died, July 23, 1961
October 10, 1943 Prince Morihiro Higashikuni Prince Nobuhiko Higashikuni
Princess Fumiko Higashikuni
Naohiko Higashikuni
Hidehiko Higashikuni
Yuko Higashikuni
Princess Sachiko.jpg Princess Hisa September 10, 1927
died, March 6, 1928
Takatsukasa Wedding 1950.jpg Princess Taka September 30, 1929
died, May 28, 1989
May 21, 1950 Toshimichi Takatsukasa Naotake Takatsukasa (adopted)
Princess Atsuko.jpg Princess Yori March 7, 1931 October 10, 1952 Takamasa Ikeda
Emperor Akihito cropped Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko 20090715 2.jpg Emperor Akihito December 23, 1933 April 10, 1959 Michiko Shōda Crown Prince Naruhito
Prince Akishino
Princess Nori
Prince Masahito and Princess Takako 1952-12.jpg Prince Hitachi November 28, 1935 September 30, 1964 Hanako Tsugaru
Crown Prince Akihito & Princess Takako1950-9.jpg Princess Suga March 2, 1939 March 3, 1960 Hisanga Shimazu Yoshihisa Shimazu


Scientific publications

  • (1969) Some hydroids from the Amakusa Islands.
  • (1971) Additional notes on Clathrozoon wilsoni Spencer.
  • (1974) Some hydrozoans of the Bonin Islands
  • (1983) Hydroids from Izu Oshima and Nijima.
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