Hirohito
(1901–1989), Japanese emperor. On 29 April 1901, Michinomiya Hirohito was born as the first son of Japanese Crown Prince Yoshihito (laterEmperor Taisho) and Princess Sadako (later Empress Teimei). The lineage of the Japanese emperor system is traced back 2,600 years and is linked with Japanese legend and mythology. Japanese history and legend defined the emperor as a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu.
A formal portrait of Emperor Hirohito in 1982. (BETTMANN/CORBIS)In 1908, Hirohito entered Gakusyuin Elementary School in Tokyo and continued his special training to be emperor. In 1912, after the death of Hirohito's grandfather, Emperor Meiji, Hirohito became crown prince. In the spring of 1921, Crown Prince Hirohito went to Europe for six months, learning of freedom and modernity in European societies through his travels and studies.
Crown Prince Hirohito's reign started in November 1921 because his father, Emperor Taisho, was unable to rule due to illness. In 1924, Crown Prince Hirohito married Princess Nagako, and together they had two sons and five daughters. On 25 December 1926, with Emperor Taisho's death, Crown Prince Hirohito officially took the 124th Chrysanthemum Throne when he was twenty-five years old. Following tradition, Hirohito's ascendance to the throne began a new period, Showa (Illustrious Peace).
Soon after the Showa period started, Japan embarked on militarism, entering a dark period of total war. In 1931, Japan invaded China after the Manchurian Incident, which led to the Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. In December 1941, Japan entered World War II in the Pacific with the attack on Pearl Harbor. In this period, Emperor Hirohito had supreme authority as the constitutional monarch, in which position he served as the symbol of national unity for the Japanese people and military.
On 15 August 1945, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration that ended World War II, after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Under Allied occupation from 1945 to 1952, the emperor was treated as the means of achieving democracy. On 1 January 1946, Emperor Hirohito renounced his divinity under the new constitution (effective in May 1947); the role of the emperor was redefined from "a living god" to "the symbol of the state and of the unity of people." Following this, Emperor Hirohito devoted himself to Japan's postwar recovery by visiting prefectures, making personal appearances in public, and interacting with the Japanese people.
On 7 January 1989, Emperor Hirohito died in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. This ended the Showa period, a period that saw brutal militarism, the invasion of Asia, World War II, Allied occupation, Japan's recovery from war and poverty, and Japan's economic miracles. Japanese people in the Showa period witnessed a rapid transformation from a military nation to a democratic nation in which Emperor Hirohito took a symbolic role through a dark and prosperous period of Japanese history. The role and image of Hirohito changed over the period due to Japan's political aims and conditions. He was an absolute monarchy and "a living god" to the Japanese before and during the war, and he became a symbol of Japan after the war and was deemed a good man to lead Japan to a modern and democratic society. The emperor system (tennou-sei) is deeply integrated into Japanese history, society, and people. Hirohito's birthday is still a Japanese national holiday and is translated as "Green Day."
Further Reading
Bix, Herbert P. (2000) Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: HarperCollins.
Irokawa, Daikichi. (1995) The Age of Hirohito: In Search of Modern Japan. Trans. by Mikiso Hane and John K. Urda. New York: Free Press.
Large, Stephen S. (1992) Emperor Hirohito and Showa Japan: A Political Biography. King's Lynn, U.K.: Biddles.
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