Was Emperor Hirohito good or bad? Did he accomplish anything for his nation?
His reign was the longest of any historical Japanese emperor, and encompassed a period of tremendous changes in Japanese society, in some of which he played a significant role. At the start of his reign, Japan was still a fairly rural country with a limited industrial base. Japan’s militarization in the 1930s, in which he is thought by some scholars to have been a participant, eventually led to Japan’s involvement in World War II, a decision in which he has again been argued to have had some influence. After that ended with the total devastation of Japan, he co-operated with the re-organization of the Japanese state during the following Occupation of Japan, and lived to see that re-birth result in Japan becoming a highly urbanized country which was one of the industrial and technological powerhouses of the world.
Emperor Hirohito (also called Showa Emperor) is a controversial figure among scholars of Japanese history and scholars of World War II. On one hand, many view him as an indecisive, tremulous figurehead who did nothing to stop the Japanese military’s swift takeover of the country. On the other, he is acknowledged to have tried to be a conscientious leader by continuing the reforms initiating by his predecessor back 2 generations, the great Meiji Emperor and he was a welcome change from his immediate predecessor, the diseased and insane Taisho Emperor. And no-one questions his wisdom in intervening and putting an end to Japan’s belligerence in World War II after the US atomic bombings. Personally, I like to consider a third path. I don’t think that he was a good statesman, but I also don’t believe that he was an evil or malicious person either. I think of him as a leader of mediocre skill who let rising power institutions — the military in his case — get the better of him. There is no
