Hirohito, from beginning to end

Hourly History books.

The book goes into his life from the start onwards. He was the grandson of an Emperor and became one himself. He was subject to a couple of assassination attempts and what amounted to a coup attempt right at the end of World War II.

The book goes through things happening during his life including the Russo-Japanese War, the invasion of China and World War II. There has been some question about how much he actually knew and approved of the invasion of China and the Japanese attacks during World War II and this book makes a good case that he knew quite a bit about these things and either gave his approval openly or just let things happen on their own.

The invasion of China was a horrible event with some things like the Rape of Nankingwhere tens of thousands of Chinese were murdered by Japanese soldiers and this doesn't count the looting and the raping of women. He also signed off on executive orders which directly led to abuses. There was also Unit 731 which was basically an even worse experimental place on humans that the Nazis actually came up with.

Then there was Pearl Harbor and the entire World War II in the Pacific Ocean area with again many innocent people being murdered by the Japanese. Their Japanese propaganda was also so effective that when the Allies invaded Okinawa many civilians leapt to their death rather than surrender to the Americans.

The Allies were getting ready to do an attempt on the Japanese main island but the atomic bombs were used first. Two cities were hit before the Emperor finally gave his approval of a surrender even though some of his own military leaders wanted the war to continue.

There weren't many Japanese tried for their war crimes. Unit 731 people should have all been executed for what they did but they weren't since the Alllies made a deal in order to get the results of their experiments. The main Japanese leader, Hirohito, was also not held accountable for his role in the invasion of China and what went on there or for World War II as such, the reason being the Allies were concerned that the Japanese people would cause major problems if that happened.

The book was well written and, to me, makes a good case that Hirohito should have been held accountable in some way for his approval of what went on.

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