This is a truly massive two volume set of books that basically ties Hirohito directly into the planning and execution of World War II, using a massive amount of evidence, memos, etc.

Volume 1 starts out with a section on the Rape of Nanking, the atomic bomb, and the defeat of Japan. It then goes into a history of Japan, a history of Hirohito, and Japan's aggression and events in Japan from 1929 on through World War II itself, which is picked up in Volume 2. The two volumes run 1612 total pages in length.

Volume 1

The author asks what made the “delightful, intelligent, artistic Japanese people turn to war and run amok over half of Asia?” He answers that it was the militarism of the ambitious generals.

He says that Japanese troops “frequently massacred entire villages in China.”

In describing Hirohito, the author says he was a “formidable war leader; tireless, dedicated, meticulous, clever, and patient. He had inherited from his great-grandfather a mission, which was to rid Asia of white men.”

He writes that the Emperor himself commissioned in January of 1941 an evaluation of an attack on Pearl Harbor. He says that Hirohito was involved in the planning for the attack six months before his military advisors were informed of it.

”Hirohito had worked with a minority, in secret, first to lead Japan to war with the West and then, in defeat, to obscure the record.”

The Rape of Nanking and China

He says that the Japanese army captured Nanking and “...subjected it to six weeks of gruesome, graduated terror. Between 100,000 and 200,000 Chinese were executed. At least 5,000 women, girls and children were raped before they were killed. Everything of value in the city was pillaged and whole sections of it were systematically put to the torch.”

He says that even though two million Chinese died in the fight with Japan, that Japan continued to call the entire event the “China Incident.” He says that Hirohito “...had directed his General Staff to plan the war [against China] in early 1935. In March of 1936, still more than a year before the war broke out, Hirohito reviewed the plans which had been made. They were so detailed that they included even a description of the provocation which would be staged at the Marco Polo Bridge.”

He refers to a Major General Suzuki Tei-ichi who “supervised the rape of Nanking largely by radio from a desk at the home headquarters of the 16th Division in the old Japanese capital city of Kyoto.”

The Emperor appointed his own uncle, Prince Asaka, as commander-in-chief of the Army around Nanking. At first it seemed that some 30,000 Chinese soldiers were willing to surrender, but the Prince issued an order under his personal seal that said the Japanese army was to “Kill all captives.”

Many of the people had already fled Nanking before the Japanese got there. About 80% of the population had fled, but that still left some two million people there. American, German, and British residents in the city organized a “safe zone” where people could seek refuge without being killed.

The city was put under attack but the Japanese forces that were there initially had a hard time, so Prince Asaka ordered the troops that were in the countryside to join the others at the city. Nanking was captured on December 12.

Nakajima and his 16th division entered the city after having spent time killing some 10,000 Chinese prisoners from areas other than in the city. The prisoners were shot and some 6,000 of them were killed.

Notices had been posted in the city after the 14th of December asking former Chinese soldiers to surrender and give themselves up to “the mercy of the Imperial Japanese Army.”

Those who fell for the ruse were rounded up and killed, apparently by bayoneting. Soon more people were taken and killed. When the soldiers weren't busy killing their captives they were busy looting the shops of the city. Trucks commanded by officers took women from refugee camps and took them back to be used for pleasure of the officers. The Prince, meanwhile, had moved his headquarters into the city on Christmas Day. Since this person was the Emperor's own uncle, it does seem reasonable to assume that he talked about what was being done in Nanking with his nephew, Hirohito.

The end result of all this was over 20,000 women raped in Nanking and surrounding areas; around 200,000 men killed; a third of the city burned down, and everything of value stolen by the soldiers.

In late January of 1938 the Emperor's cousin returned from a trip to Nanking and filled the Emperor in on what he had seen there.

The Atomic Bomb

The author says that, if Japan had been physically invaded, the US would have lost from 250,000 to 1,000,000 lives and that Japan would have been decimated and basically made useless as far as a post-war bulwark against Soviet and Chinese communism goes.

Apparently Edward Teller, involved in the making of the bomb, suggested that it be dropped on Tokyo but at a height which would cause it to do minimal damage, to serve as a direct demonstration to those ruling Japan that the US could destroy them at will.

There was a complex under construction at Nagano which could have been used to house the Emperor and others in the event of the fall of Tokyo. The place was underground and would have been very hard to destroy by bombing.

The author talks about all the planes that were hidden in Japan to be used for trying to repulse the expected US landing on Japanese home soil itself. He also discusses Japan's own attempts to construct an atomic bomb.

Defeat

The Japanese were so worried about what the US soldiers would do once they landed to occupy the country after it's surrender that, in some places, meetings were called in towns to advise the men to move their “virtuous” wives and daughters to safety in rural areas. Tens of thousands of women fled. Some women were given cyanide capsules to use if they were threatened. Some towns offered severance pay to employees that wanted to flee.

Once the US troops actually landed, though, it didn't take long before the Japanese realized that the horrors they expected were not going to happen. (There were a few isolated incidents of rape, etc, but those were dealt with by the American authorities. There's always a few bad ones mixed in with any bunch of people.)

Before the occupation was over, the estimate is that half of the Allied officers had Japanese mistresses.

Other Atrocities

The author notes that some 16,000 Allied POWs had “been beaten, starved, and worked to death in the construction of a jungle railway from Thailand to Burma. The Japanese secret police had kept pens of naked Western men and women in the cellars under the torture chambers of Bridge House in Shanghai.”

More on the Emperor

On January 27, 1946, MacArthur said that “There is no specific or tangible evidence to connect the Emperor with responsibility for any decision of the Japanese government during the past ten years. The Japanese people would regard indictment of the Emperor as a grave betrayal.”

The idea behind this, apparently, was that, if the Emperor were to be tried and executed, there would be “action by resistance groups” and that the occupation would have been much different and much harder than it was.

The diary of the Lord Privy Seal shows that, eight days before the attack on pearl Harbor, “Hirohito had rejected a last-minute plea from his brother, prince Takamatsu, to reconsider the attack plans.”

History of Japan

The author says that the first people came to Japan about 100,000 years ago. Japan was linked to the mainland land bridges, but these were submerged around 10,000 years ago. A Siberian culture developed in the northern parts of Japan, while a Southeast Asian culture developed in the south.

The author then goes into a long history of Japan.

After that, he goes into a history of Hirohito's life. Apparently, in 1927 Hirohito was studying disease-causing fungi.

After that, the author goes into the history of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The author says that the Emperor gave his personal approval to the plans for the future actions of the Japanese army in Manchuria. This included attending a dress-rehearsal by Japanese troops for the railroad “incident” that was later to take place.

Volume 2

The book starts with events in 1935.

July 7, 1937, was the Marco Polo Bridge incident which “began on schedule.” On August 9th, another incident was staged, this one in Shanghai.

In October of 1940, according to the author, plans were devised to “...withdraw members of the imperial family from positions of responsibility,” and “to create a cover story for them so that they would seem to have played no part in the events leading to war.”

The book is one of many that notes that Yamamoto, the great admiral, tried to warn the Japanese government that going to war with the US was not the greatest idea in the world, and that, if the war lasted longer than about a year, he could not guarantee continued victories.

The author also talks about FDR's relationship to the attack on Pearl Harbor. “It was policy that the United States should not react until after Japan had struck. That was the way to keep an unblemished democratic record. What was more, the majority of the President's military advisors felt that Japan would gain only a small temporary advantage by striking first.”

The author discusses the Bataan Death March, and how 2,000 to 3,000 Americans and 6,000 Filipinos died during the march.

The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo resulted in 50 Japanese dead, 252 wounded, and ninety factory buildings damaged.

The author also ties Hirohito in to the order for the executions of eight of the Doolittle raiders.

A Japanese victory at Midway, according to the author, would have allowed them to take Hawaii in August of 1942, as they had planned, then take the Panama Canal, terrorize California, and force the US to abandon Australia.

The author believes that Hirohito could have surrendered Japan as early as January of 1944. Such an action would have saved Japan hundreds of thousands of lives.

He also believes that the firebombing of the cities caused the lower classes of Japanese to firmly believe that the US was bent on exterminating all the Japanese.

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