Emperor of Japan

[Comrada J]

How come I constantly hear how evil Hitler and Stalin where, but not Hirohito?

According to some sources, Japanese imperialism killed more then Hitler's Holocaust and Stalin's gulags combined. So what gives? Also what's the situation with japan's education towards that?

[Jadan ja]

After the war it was decided that Tojo Hideki, Fumimaro Konoe and some other people should be blamed for the war crimes and leading an agressive war. Showa Tenno (a more polite way of calling Hirohito) certainly had the formal power to stop the war and prevent war crimes (I think that there is some evidence that he knew what was happening), but official version of history states that the military had the complete power and the emperor was just a figure. Was he responsible (for anything) or not I dont know, but the fact is that he never made any kind of apology other than an apology to Japanese who suffered in the war (there was no apology to other nations).

As I said, I dont know was he responsible for anything, but to put him on trial would probably lead to a rebellion. Japanese believed that the emperor a god and children were every morning asked in school what would they do if the emperor ordered them to kill themselves (children then had to describe the way in which they would kill themselves). Emoeror is simply too important for Japanese and that is why he was never put on trial.

Japanese education today is trying not to teach about Japanese imperialism in the first half of XX century. I never saw the textbooks, but people told me that the war is very briefly described and no war crimes were mentioned. I also heard that many Japanese history teachers completely omit teaching about the war (usually under excuse that they did not have time).

I dont think that Japan ever rejected fascism in the way Germany did. Prime minister often visits the Yasukuni jinja and many people still generally avoid talking about that period of history.

[rebelworker]

I think one of the reasons that you dont hear about how bad he was is that there were never international mass moements holding him up as a model to be followed...

With the others some people have been crazy enough to follow them, thus the need to trumpet thier crimes.

[ComradeOm]

Japan was on the good side of America during the Cold War.

[*PRC*Kensei]

Originally posted by Komrad [email protected] 15 2005, 06:58 AM
How come I constantly hear how evil Hitler and Stalin where but not Hirohito?

According to some sources, Japanese imperialism killed more then Hitler's Holocaust and Stalin's gulags combined. So what gives? Also what's the situation with japan's education towards that?
mate... bad as stalin & moa, may i just notice the chance that there are some people on this forum who like stalinism & maoist is a little to high to make statements like that :P

however i think they both... went mad at a sertain point, but both did some remarkable (positive) things for their countrys.

Hitlers is like....a major error in human history... world would have been so much better without the fucker...

[RedStarOverChina]

The emperor was the commander of the Imerial Japanese Army. He was the biggest war criminal in the whole of the Eastern Hemisphere.

I dont think that Japan ever rejected fascism in the way Germany did. Prime minister often visits the Yasukuni jinja and many people still generally avoid talking about that period of history.
I totally agree. I think by pressuring the PM to visit the shrine, the NEo-fascists in Japan make a very clear statement, that they are alive and kicking.

[Wiesty]

Hirohito was just very reactionary, he still tried to run things the way his ancient ancestors did, which in japan, was normal for that time. But yes, he was ruthless, and the japanses millitary ideal was to take no prisoners, fight till the death etc.

[Janus]

There has been much debate about the amount of control that Hirohito had over the Japanese government during World War II. However, the fact that he actually approved of the Japanese military's entrance into the war. Therefore, he must also be held partly responsible for the war crimes that the Japanese military committed. However, since he was the emperor of the Japanese, some influential individuals such as MacArthur allowed him to retain the throne in order to keep a cohesive nation.

[QUOTE]the japanses millitary ideal was to take no prisoners

Despite the fact that the Meiji Restoration had destroyed much of the old views, honor was still an important aspect of Japanese society. However, this code of honor maintained that prisoners could be taken, which is what occured during the Sino-Japanese War, the Russian-Japanese War, and World War II. You can't simply believe that this "ideal" justifies the crimes that the Japanese armies committed during World War II. Hirohito was a cunning man and used his position in order to mainpulate thousands of young Japs to sacrifice their lives in order to advance his goals.

[Janus]

How can you compare Hirohito, the Japanese imperialist, with Mao? Yes, I know that Mao had his share of faults but he never invaded another nations in order to exploit and murder their people.

[Jadan ja]

However, the fact that he actually approved of the Japanese military's entrance into the war. Therefore, he must also be held partly responsible for the war crimes that the Japanese military committed.

I think that there is something he wrote on the begining of the war and there he talks how he does not approve of the war.

[Comrada J]

Thanks for the info guys. I don't hate Mao, but when a conversation about 20th Death tolls/Worlds most evil man comes up he all ways seemes to be mentioned as being the Number one murderer of all time. :blink: I'm sure you know what I mean.

Oh and also, what’s the death toll on 20th century Japanese imperialism?

[Atlas Swallowed]

The crimes against the Chinese committed by the Japanese do not get much attention. They would give Chinese children candy laced with diseases. They dissected people alive and many other attrocities. Thanks to Douglas Mac Arthur(may he rot in hell) these crimes went unpunished. The Emporer went along with the crimes his generals were committing and deserves to be on any list of murderous scumbags.

[DisIllusion]

Yeah, the war crimes the Japanese made against the Chinese are still being overlooked today. If you look in a normal high school Japanese history textbook, you'll see nothing about the Japanese occupation in China. There's maybe one paragraph about it, but it doesn't say what they did was wrong. In Germany, they banned Nazism. China has always been pressuring the Japanese to change their educational system to let their people know what really happened, since most of they have never even heard of Nanjing. Much less what happened there.

[Janus]

Some of this apathy may be due to the fact that Mao and the other Chinese leaders didn't show the amount of repulsion that they should've shown. After all, when Japanese ambassadors later came to apologize to Mao, he actually thanked them. Mao and the other party cadres were well aware that without the Japanese invasion, the revolution most likely wouldn't have succeded. Therefore, perhaps, the Japanese may have taken advantage of this feeling in order to try to avoid any responsibilty for teaching their children what horrible crimes they committed. This is totally irresponsible and shows that the Japanese still don't truly feel guilty about the massive damages and harm they inflicted against the Chinese.

[RedStarOverChina]

After all, when Japanese ambassadors later came to apologize to Mao, he actually thanked them.
I dont think he actually meant to "thank" Japanese Imperialism. It's just his in-your-face personality. Probably said that to piss off Chiang Kaishek :P

[Pink Moon]

Tojo was basically in charge of it all, he took over Hirohito's place.

[Janus]

Not until 1941, the emperor still had dominant power before that. Tojo was only a general when the invasion of China began, but he had become prime minister and had control over the armed forces by 1941. Therefore, he was a major factor in the war with the US.

[Severian]

There was a conscious decision by U.S. imperialism to save the institution of the emperor.

At one point in Tojo's trial, he said that of course the emperor approved his decisions. They stopped the trial, took him out of the room, and brought him back in to say: he misspoke, and the emperor was not involved.

*****

So: why the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then? Those are defended as necessary to force the unconditional surrender of Japan...which the U.S. insisted on. Japanese efforts to explore the possibility of peace on the sole condition that the emperor remain on the throne were ignored.

Washington didn't even attempt to see if that promise would secure the surrender of Japan without the need to exterminate tens of thousands of civilians.....but then after the war they keep the emperor on his throne anyway.

[Atlas Swallowed]

Human Guinea pigs for the atomic bomb. They never would have tested it on white people.