How come Hirohito was never tried for his crimes?

Question

His family lives like kings and queens. What's so special about Hirohito and his family? The only difference between Hitler and Hirohito was that Hilter was more visible and Hirohito was in hiding to masked his orders to kills as many Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos. Hilter felt that Jews were of an inferior race while Hirohito believed that Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos were of an inferior race. Hitler and Hirohito figured they all deserved to be destroyed and killed like animals.

Answer 1

Contrary to what the history books teach, Japan's 1945 surrender was far from unconditional. Douglas MacArthur led the pressure to allow Hirohito and the Chrysanthemuim Throne to remain, with the stipulation that Hirohito publicly denounce his own status as a deity. The intent was to make the huge Japanese population easier to control by U.S. and Allied occupation forces. It was a brilliant move. By and large the defeated Japanese were docile, and actually came to regard MacArthur as a demi-god during his term as Governor of Japan following WWII.

Answer 2

Even after the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs, causing an amazing amount of death, destruction, and suffering, the Japanese military and other high officials wanted to continue the war. Hirohito put himself at serious personal risk and insisted that the Japanese surrender. I'm not saying he's a hero, but this action is probably why the US allowed him to continue in power. An alternate eplanation may be that he had a secret agreement with US officials, where he agreed to get his generals to end the war, and in return the US would not depose him or put him on trial for war crimes.

Answer 3

The Imperial Household Law of 1947(Koshitu Tempan) is a statute that governs the line of succession to the Chrysanthemum throne, the membership of the imperial family, and other matters pertaining to the administration of the Imperial Household. It was passed during the Showa era on January 16, 1947, by the last session of the Imperial Diet. This law superseded the Imperial Household Law of 1889, which had enjoyed co-equal status with the Constitution of the Empire of Japan and could only be amended by the emperor. The revised statute is clearly subordinate to the Constitution of Japan, which went into effect on May 3, 1947. It develops Chapter 1: Article 2 of The Constitution of Japan which states: "The Imperial Throne shall be dynastic and succeeded to in accordance with the Imperial House Law passed by the Diet" [1].

Hastily drafted by the government of Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru during the American occupation, the 1947 statute sought to bring the legislation governing the Imperial Household into compliance with the American-written Constitution. The law had the effect of dramatically restricting membership in the imperial family to the Emperor Hirohito's immediate family, his widowed mother, and the families of his three brothers. It abolished the collateral lines of the imperial family, the shinnoke and the oke, which had traditionally a pool of potential successors to the throne if the main imperial family failed to produce an heir. (The fifty-one members of the eleven cadet branches were formally removed from the imperial household register and become ordinary citizens on October 14, 1947.) The new law retained the principle of agnatic succession enshirned in the 1889 law and the Meiji Constitution, but further restricted the succession to legitimate-born sons, grandsons, and male line descendants of an emperor. Previously, an emperor's sons and grandsons born by concubines and their male line descendants could succeed to the throne. Finally, the law contained numerous mechanisms to regulate the future size of the imperial family (and thus the financial burden on the state).

Answer 4

Dynes ... The link below will take you to a Wikipedia article about Emperor Hirohito's reign after the war ended. For a more complete picture, scroll up to the beginning of the article about the man that the Japanese people thought was a divine descendant of the Sun Goddess.

Answer 5

Hirohito was different than Hitler. His power was much more limited and that power was in the hands of a coalition between the military and business. Hirohito went along with all and bears some culpability. He was let off because he was needed to pacify Japan. It would have been longer and made much difficult to occupy Japan with him alive but in greatly reduced position in Japan. Most of the power in WWII Japan was in the hands of General Hideki Tojo. Tojo was hung after a trial.

Would it not be nice if answerers were to post their own knowledge than just look it up in Wikpedia duplicate here. The business about Hirohito trying to surrender early is poppycock. The A bomb had absoluteley nothing to do with the decision to let Hirohito remain as Emperor, it was pure pragmatism. MacArthur for all intents purpose became the real emperor of Japan.

Answer 6

He almost was! But not doing so was part of the deal between the Japanese and Americans. Hirohito was "demoted" as a deity but able kept his royal title. This was done to keep some continuity within Japan.

Answer 7

Hirohito was a pawn of the military. The war was not ended until he asserted himself. If the military had their way, Japan would have been a pile of radioactive green glass.

Answer 8

Hirohito tried to surrender all summer long. He begged the US to let him surrender. However the US wanted to mark it's place in history, and world power, by still dropping the bomb. So we ignored his pleas to let them surrender.
I think that the hundreds of thousands that died in the bomb blasts made the rest of the world sorry for the Japanese, and the unconditional surrender was brokered with a clemency clause in it so the rulers could not be tried for war crimes.

Answer 9

I agree with your assessment...I would guess that it had something to do with the atomic bombing which the US used on Japan but not Germany....but I wasn't even born then so this is all a surmise....................the famalies in Europe who are still royalty even after WWII..it confounds me too

Answer 10

"He cooperated totally with the Allied occupation forces, and for this reason he was not heavily tried and sentenced for war crimes."

See: http://library.thinkquest.org/15511/data/encyclopedia/hirohitoemperor.htm