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
The allies were not out there to subjugate Japan. Their main goal was to bring order to East Asia and the Pacific, demilitarize Japan and begin a new era under a new constitution. The world was a broken mess, and whilst the allies wanted to bring the people responsible to justice, they did not want to be seen as taking acts of revenge on the nations they had triumphed against.
War criminals, whose participation in the atrocities of WW2 was known and proven were tried. Not only German officers, but also high ranking members of the Japanese Imperial Army.
The Emperor, however, did not fall into that category. Omitting the fact that he’s pretty much the most revered person in Japan, descendant of a 2000+ year old dynasty that claims lineage directly from the Shinto gods, he was also very much for the surrender of Japan whilst his most senior military commanders were not. Many committed ritual suicide in the days leading up to surrender and some tried to depose him.
Hirohito, in his later years, was invited by many western countries, including the US, in shows of goodwill where he expressed his regret for the atrocities committed by Japan and the unprovoked attacks against the United States. The US has done the same concerning the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As for Japan, the US poured huge sums of money in the reconstruction of what was basically a leveled-out Tokyo as well as the rest of the country, similar to what they did in Germany. They were aware that the Japanese could rebuild for themselves if given the chance and, pursuing that, they ratified a peaceful constitution for Japan and built a strong foundation for a working economy. By 1952, the US had restored full sovereignty to Japan. Fast forward to the 60s and the nation was one of the fastest growing economies in the world, becoming the second largest economy in the world after the US in the 80s and 90s. That was referred to as the Japanese economic miracle, and many doubt any of that would have been possible had the US taken a different approach towards Japan that could have involved trying or sentencing the Emperor.
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