Emperor Hirohito 'too weak' to stop Japan entering second world war, declassified documents show
Former ambassador explains that although the emperor was considered “sacred” and all-powerful, his power was limited by ministers and the military
Emperor Hirohito was uneasy with Japan’s drift to war in the 1930s and 1940s but was too weak to alter the course of events, according to a declassified British government assessment of the Japanese monarch upon his death in January 1989.
Debate has often raged over the extent to which Emperor Hirohito was culpable for Japan’s wartime past with some critics claiming he was complicit in the atrocities.
Writing a few weeks after the monarch’s death, John Whitehead, Britain’s ambassador to Japan, stated: “A man of stronger personality than Hirohito might have tried more strenuously to check the growing influence of the military in Japanese politics and the drift of Japan toward war with the western powers.
“The contemporary diary evidence suggests that Hirohito was uncomfortable with the direction of Japanese policy.
A man of stronger personality than Hirohito might have tried more strenuously to check the growing influence of the military ... and the drift of Japan toward war
“The consensus of those who have studied the documents of the period is that Hirohito was consistent in attempting to use his personal influence to induce caution and to moderate and even obstruct the growing impetus toward war.”
But Whitehead wrote that ultimately Hirohito was “powerless” and any comparisons with Hitler were “ridiculously wide of the mark”.