Emperor Hirohito of Japan

Hirohito  (April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to exclusively by his posthumous name Emperor Shōwa. The word Shōwa is the name of his reign, and was made the Emperor’s own name upon his death.At the start of his reign, Japan was still a fairly rural country with a limited industrial base.[citation needed] Hirohito led militarization and surpression until the end of the World War II, as the head of the Empire of Japan.After the World War II, Hirohito escaped death and dethronement by mercy of Douglas MacArthur, preserved his dynasty as the “symbol” of the State of Japan.Prior to World War II, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and the rest of China in 1937 (the Second Sino-Japanese War). Primary sources reveal that Emperor Shōwa never really had any objection to the invasion of China in 1937which was 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 Soviets in the north.Toward the end of the occupation, Hirohito let it be known to SCAP that he was prepared to apologize formally to U.S. Gen. MacArthur for Japan’s actions during World War II – including an apology for the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.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.Emperor Shōwa also played an important role in rebuilding Japan’s diplomatic image, traveling abroad to meet with many foreign leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II (1971) and President Gerald Ford (1975).however, on September 19, 1988, he collapsed in his palace, and his health worsened over the next several months as he suffered from continuous internal bleeding. On January 7, 1989, at 7:55 AM, the grand steward of Japan’s Imperial Household Agency, Shoichi Fujimori, officially announced the death of Emperor Hirohito, and revealed details about his cancer for the first time. The emperor was succeeded by his son, Akihito.