What did Emperor Showa know and when did he know it?:
Emperor Hirohito appeared to be preparing for war against the United States about two months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, according to a diary that raises further questions about his wartime responsibilities.
Even government ministers were at times worried that the emperor, who was distressed that war with the United States was inevitable, was getting ahead of them in terms of battle preparations, according to the diary penned by Saburo Hyakutake (1872-1963), the grand chamberlain for the emperor.
The diary was deposited with the University of Tokyo in 2019 and became available to the public this year, which marks the 80th year of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 (Dec. 8 Japan time).
Hirohito (1901-1989), posthumously known as Emperor Showa, was not indicted by the allied powers in the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal based on the argument that he was cautious about war and wanted peace, and that he reluctantly agreed to the war pushed by the government and military.
But recent studies of modern Japanese history have turned up records that contradict that narrative, revealing an emperor who at some point was positive about Japan’s entry into a war with the West.
Some documents showed that Hirohito assumed Japan would go to war and ruminated about how to end the war even before it had started.
Other records showed that he called for more aggressive operations after the war started and was happy about Japan’s results.
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