Could Japanese Emperor Hirohito have prevented the Rape of Nanking and Shanghai?
The emperor had a great deal of power. On August 14, 1945, he told the Japanese people to surrender, and they did. That is not the response you would expect if he were a puppet controlled by the military. If he had that much power at the end of the war, he could have stopped it, lessened its severity, or prevented it altogether, but he chose not to. The decision to spare him was a concession to political reality. The postwar administration of Japan was a lot easier with him around, because the United States had an instrument through which to give orders and compel obedience and cooperation from the Japanese people. I am sure that someone explained to him that he would be allowed to live, but that he had to cooperate, and he went along. On balance, it was probably not a bad result.
