Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

In Chapter 9, Dower discusses one of the central questions of the early postwar period in Japan—the question of whether Emperor Hirohito should be held accountable for Japan’s aggression and war crimes, and, if not, what role he should play in the reformed Japanese society. Whereas Hirohito’s underlings were investigated, charged, tried, and, sometimes, executed for war crimes, the emperor remained free. The American occupants made no serious attempts to examine Hirohito’s role in Japan’s war and refrained from “acknowledging even moral responsibility for the repression and violence that had been carried out in his name and with his endorsement” (277-78).

Dower underscores both the political and the ideological consequences of exculpating Japan’s former leader from collective war guilt. These ramifications included the potential of public perception of justice as an arbitrary concept, the reassertion of the hereditary privilege of Japan’s nobility, and the rebranding of Hirohito into a symbol of this new Japan.

The MacArthur-led strategy of rebranding the emperor challenged the domestic opinion polls, in which the majority of Americans desired Hirohito’s execution. Instead, SCAP established formal and informal relationships with Japan’s royalists to preserve and promote the emperor. This relationship was significant because it involved the upper echelons of American leadership in Japan.