Eli5 Why wasn’t emperor Hirohito persecuted or killed following the end of World War 2?

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So emperor Hirohito died and lived to his 80s or 90s, why wasn’t he instantly killed or sent to jail after the war ended. Did he get punished at all?

In: 1701

36 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Two of his cities gotten nuked and they lost more than 100,000 citizens. He surrendered. Taking him out of the picture means someone else would lead Japan. We already knew where Hirohito was coming from and he had been thoroughly defeated.

The new guy might not be so broken and defeated. We might have to go through this all again.

And I am certain there were some background deals made.

Plus, the Japanese believed that his blood line was descended from the Shinto Sun goddess. He was basically born of a god. Taking him out of the picture and putting him in jail might have destabilized and polarized Japan in ways we could not imagine. Our problems with Japan may just have started if we had put him in jail.

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