Emperor Hirohito Ruled Japan for 63 Years

America used his refusal to surrender to test the deadliest bomb, and committed one of the worst war crimes.

Hirohito, the 124^th emperor of Japan, was known as Hirohiti, Emperor Hirohito, and Tenno Heika, which means “His Majesty the Son of Heaven”. He started his rule on December 25, 1926. His rule was one of the longest in the history of Japan.

The Son of Heaven was born on this day in history, April 29, 1901. Since his earliest days, he was considered to be very rational and peace loving, but soon after he took the throne he attacked China, and he did not want to stop the attacks. At least it was thought that he did not want to.

After death he was called the peaceful Emperor

As history showed, Hirohito was very impressionable, and he was controlled by his generals. Ruthless and cruel, they functioned from the shadows and placed everything on Hirohito’s back. Because of their crimes and violent behaviour, at the start of World War II,  Hirohito gained the nickname “Asian Hitler”, because of the deals that he made with him, in order to free himself of the Russian threat.

Despite that nickname, the real truth was that he always tried to find peaceful and democratic solutions, but he could not impose his will in those bloody days of the 20^th century and Japan went to war. It was a war in which Japan lost a lot, and because of Hirohito’s warrior and proud spirit, he did not want to surrender, and came across support from all.

Unfortunately for him, as well as for many Japanese, America used his refusal to surrender for the testing of the deadliest bomb, and committed a war crime that took hundreds of thousands of lives in a short time. Seeing how much damage such a bomb can do, Hirohito signed a surrender, and with the aid of the Americans he was not charged with war crimes and remained emperor. He had to bear the American occupation until the end of his rule.

Hirohito ended his rule and his life on January 7, 1989, and after his death he became known as the peaceful emperor (emperor Showa), and they call his reign the “peaceful period”. This is a little bit ironic since during his rule, some of the hardest wars in the history of Japan occurred.