Why was Japan Allowed to Keep its Emperor After World War 2? (Short Animated Documentary)

as you'll know the people running the axis nations at the beginning of world war ii were not running them at the end of it the notable exception being emperor hirohito of japan who despite thinking that bombing pearl harbor was just a swell idea managed to maintain his position as emperor of japan for the rest of his life but why why was hirohito allowed to stay on the throne well the most obvious answer is that it made things easier unlike the other axis leaders the japanese emperor wasn't just some official as emperor hirohito wasn't just admired or liked by the japanese people but revered and the allies knew that getting rid of him would stiffen resistance massively except for stalin who didn't care and was happy to continue even with the extra fighting when japan sent out feelers about conditionally surrendering their condition was that the emperor would remain in place now the americans said no because the allies had previously agreed that only unconditional surrender would be permitted cleverly truman didn't explicitly state to the japanese that they were going to get rid of the emperor just that japan would have the form of government its people wanted and given the emperor's popularity with the people the japanese government saw this as a guarantee that he would be allowed to stay it was not and after the emperor accepted unconditional surrender his position wasn't exactly secure the american public wanted hirohito to be tried as a war criminal and then removed yet for american leaders it wasn't so simple the usa had several objectives for the occupation of japan one it wanted as little bloodshed as possible and if keeping hirohito meant that the japanese would lay down their arms then that was fine which brings me on to point two the us government was concerned about communism in japan and the imperial family was seen as a bulwark against it if japan had to be invaded it was almost assured that the soviets would land as well which would mean a divided japan much like germany which was a no-no and three if the emperor was maintained then reforming and occupying japan would be much easier since any new laws would be seen as japanese mandates and not american dictats that's not to say that there was only foreign pressure to remove the emperor there were some more liberal-minded ministers in government that believed that japan needed a new start and a new emperor hirohito's son the americans were firmly against this because it would look like they had removed him and also because the new emperor would be seen as a puppet which was an image that the americans did not want because their long-term plan was to make japan an ally in the fight against communism side note a job which was made much more difficult when japan disbanded its armed forces making the americans fairly grumpy since they now had to do all of the defending in the end hirohito never saw trial and remained on the imperial throne until his tenure was cut short by a minor case of mortality and the reason for him remaining was extremely simple pure expediency there was no love between the american leadership and the japanese emperor but if the newly evolving american strategy for the cold war was going to be a success then the emperor had to stay i hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons james bissonette kelly money maker the pastry section marvin cassell rob waterhouse mo aaron the white james castaneda jordan longley marcus arsenault gustav swann jerry lambton john bailey spinning three plates rasheed ali cooling castleman david silverman izzy copper tone maggie paxkowski winston k wood lexy schwinn spencer lightfoot robert wetzel fortunate calf anthony beckett and skye chappelle

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,831,130

Keywords:

Id: -6VRESxVT4w

Length: 3min 9sec (189 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020