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
Because they Allie’s were afraid if they did kill him japan would turn in to shambles, much like Germany after the treaty of Versailles.
There’s a book called Sugamo prison
It’s about the trials and executions of the class A Japanese war criminals just after the war. It’s written by one of the prosecutors and lays out the case for letting the emperor go, and goes into detail about the crimes committed and the prison time and executions that took place in what is now in the middle of a shopping center in Tokyo.
The problem with executing the leaders of your surrendered enemy is that the next enemy will never surrender because they know they will die anyway.
You reminded me of a ruuning cadence we used to sing with Marines, a bit macabre but hey, gotta brainwash soldiers somehow.
“Marines we fought in the second world war,
Hirohito wanted to even the score.
We dropped our bomb and the air got hot,
Turned japan into a parking lot!”
World leaders play in a different ball game. They know it’s just a game played at the highest level and they have a kind of mutual respect. There is an unspoken rule that world leaders don’t throw each other under the bus. It’s why you can see heads of state of opposite sides of rivalries sitting at a table or calling on the phone and making small talk and joking with each other.
When two baseball teams play each other, everyone is playing their hardest and trying anything they can to win in the game. Once the game is over, everyone shakes hands and maybe invites each other to a bar for a drink.
For Hirohito, it was, “we have you beat, sorry you lost, but good game.”
It was the only way to ensure a peaceful occupation and post war relations. The governments contrived to pretend he was just a doddering harmless old man who was manipulated by some scape goats.
He’s, he should burn in hell, but for the sake of peace he was allowed to escape justice.
The emperor’s support was critical to ending WWII. There were Japanese soldiers on islands who fought on for a decade after the end of the war. If the emperor told people in the homeland to fight to the end, it would have resulted in millions of Japanese and American military deaths, plus millions more of Japanese civilians.
To be clear, it is a “greater good” argument to let the emperor and his family go free and continue their positions (even if weaker). The rape of Nanking could trace responsibility to the imperial family. The countless who died and were raped never saw those responsible be held accountable.
Additionally, there’s pressure to end the war before the soviets could take more land, and also to end it soon enough where Kai-Shek’s nationalists in China could retain their upper hand (which didn’t last) in the paused civil war.
Looking at Japan’s post-war recovery and the US’ alliance with Japan, it’s hard to say that it didn’t work out well for both of them in the end. I personally think it was the best choice available, but definitely not a perfect one.
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.
Unfortunately, Japan was largely left alone and all their war atrocities (China, Korea, batan death March… Etc etc) were just left alone.
Everyone knows what the nazi’s did, but most really don’t know how bad Japan was to their neighbors
Because time takes men, but Martyrs never die.
If an occupying army executed the Emperor, he would have been immortalized as a Martyr. His Ghost would haunt Japan for centuries as people pining for the Glory Days of the Empire rallied around his image and memory.
Allowing him to die as a man neutered that threat.
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