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
There’s plenty of room for argument as to how much responsibility the Emperor had for the decisions of the Japanese government.
In the end, Hirohito was stripped of his power, and reduced to being a figurehead monarch, like European royals. Keeping him on as that was a pragmatic decision, because it greatly eased the occupation and nation-rebuilding of Japan.
There are people who argue that he should have been pushed to abdicate in favor of his son a few years after the war, but…. By then, with the Cold War on, the Americans had a strong interest in a stable Japan.
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