Timewatch: Hirohito

It starts out by saying Hirohito is a controversial figure.

He approved the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese destroyed a lot of documents before the Allied Occupation.

Getting things ready for the war crimes trials with 28 Japanese charged. Some officials met with him to go over a defense for a trial that he ended up never going to.

A diary had been kept noting what he said.

Some people today accept his defense.

One of the people that believes the Emperor has a responsibility for the war taking place.

Then the film goes into the history of Hirohito's family down to his grandfather. She explains the Japanese governing system was basically a mess, very complicated and sometimes contradictory. Hirohito was very sheltered as a child and he wasn't the man his grandfather was.

He was enthroned in 1928 and for the next several years the militarists made their move to gain power in the government.

A former Japanese soldier.

Another thing the children were taught.

Hierarchy was all-important. There was the Emperor at the top, then the aristocrats, then the normal people, then the underclass. He adds they called the Chinese chinks. He says they were taught that the Japanese were the superior race.

Thus, the Chinese were way low on the totem pole.

Out-of-control Japanese units planted a bomb that led to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

She says basically that Hirohito went along with the military rather than oppose them and stop the invasion. The somewhat obvious conclusion is that he was a very weak ruler.

1937 was the invasion of China itself. The narrator says that people differ on whether or not Hirohito could have done anything about what was going on since the military was acting pretty much on its own. In public the Emperor was seen as a military leader.

The people of Japan supported the war. This was due to what they were being taught in schools, the Japanese propaganda being used, and their long history of Emperor worship.

He notes Japan was in recession so a war was a good way to get the economy going.

This, of course, alarmed other countries.

This refers to the atrocities like the Nanking Massacre.

Another former soldier talks about killing civilians.

Notice these former soldiers are saying they did everything for the Emperor.

She says the Emperor saw what was going on, including the killing of innocent civilians, as part of the wartime necessities.

On September 5, 1941, an agenda for war was discussion and Hirohito was present. He did not speak out against a possible war.

The Prime Minister resigned and Hirohito supported the appointment of Tojo as the new Prime Minister, knowing full well that he took a hawkish position.

One of Hirohito's relatives told him the Japanese Navy didn't want to go to war with the U.S.

One of the ministers talks to Hirohito.

More diary material. The notes said the Emperor nodded in agreement to each statement the ministers made.

According to another diary eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor was declared a success the Emperor put his official stamp on the order.

She says Hirohito was in essence a cheerleader for the war, urging his troops onward.

The war turned badly against the Japanese and the United States took Okinawa. This guy is questioning whether the Japanese people were told the truth about the defeats. He's right, of course. Then the film talks about the Japanese military telling the civilians how horribly they would be treated by the American troops which lead the civilians to kill themselves.

The military knew that they would be eventually defeated but they went on, branching out to the use of kamikaze pilots with Hirohito's approval.

A former kamikaze pilot speaks out.

The Japanese people hear their Emperor's voice for the first time. He says the war is over.

Some of the older people felt Hirohito should have abdicated or committed suicide.

Loads of documents were burned.

She says that after the role there was a massive white-wash, making Hirohito's role in running the war appear smaller or non-existent.

MacArthur called Hirohito to a meeting. The Americans were also behind the idea of reducing Hirohito's responsibility for what happened. The concept was that occupying Japan would be easier if Hirohito was kept as a nominal figurehead then if he was arrested, tried and executed.

Then the war crimes trials were set up. The Emperor was on the list of those to be tried but MacArthur had him removed from the list.

The film goes on to explain MacArthur's role in all of this with his ambitions for running for President very possibly having a large effect on his leniency towards the Emperor. The USSR wanted Hirohito tried so one of MacArthur's men met with some Japanese representatives to make it look like Tojo bore the entire responsibility for the war and the Emperor bore no responsibility. Tojo was even told what to say when in court.

This guy tried to get a book published about Hirohito's true role but he was turned down.

Then it talks about how rightists went after people who talked about Hirohito's responsibility including the may of Nagasaki who was shot in the back.

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