Cesarz hirohito biography

Home / Historical Figures / Cesarz hirohito biography

He died officially on January 6, just as the New Year’s holidays were coming to a close. Hirohito became emperor when his father died in 1926.

The emperor was regarded as divine by many Japanese. Describing one outing, Frank Gibney wrote in Time: "The crumpled gray hat became in time the badge of a successful political campaigner.

Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who led the Pearl Harbor air attack and transmitted the famous “Tora, tora, tora,” said he showed photographs from the attack to Emperor Hirohito, who he said was fascinated with images and kept saying he wanted to show them to the Empress.

Hirohito also praised the victims in Singapore, the Philippines and the Pacific, received detailed reports about military planning and offered advice on things like the Bataan Death March and the Battle of Leyte.

After the war, the new constitution drafted by the United States transformed Japan into a constitutional monarchy so that sovereignty lay with the people instead of the emperor. After that Hirohito was taught by war hero Admiral Heihachiro Togo.

At the age of 20, Hirohito became the first royal prince to leave Japan and see the world.

She also gave her daughter-in-law, Empress Michiko, a hard time in part because she was a commoner and she was educated at a Catholic school.


Hirohito's family, including future Emperor Akihito

Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako had eight children: Princess Shigeko (1925-61), Princess Sachiko (1927-28), Princess Kazuko (1929-89), Princess Atsuko (1931-), Emperor Akhito (1933-), Princess Hitachi (1940-), Prince Hitachi (1935-) and Prince Takado (1939).

Hirohito's Character and Interests

Hirohito has been described as a shy, troubled, aloof, lonely, reclusive family man who was puritanical in private and formal in public.

One of the most important figures of the 20th century, he was the Emperor of Japan when it became a world class military power, when it invaded China, when it raped Nanking, when it attacked Pearl Harbor and when it rose to become the world's second economic superpower. His son Akihito succeeded him to the throne.


  • Name: Hirohito Michinomiya
  • Birth Year: 1901
  • Birth date: April 29, 1901
  • Birth City: Tokyo
  • Birth Country: Japan
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Hirohito was Japan's longest-reigning emperor, holding the throne from 1926 to 1989.

    In the speech said that "the war situation had developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of world have all turned against her interests. It may have been the direct intervention of Douglas MacArthur that kept that from happening. An effort was made to make Hirohito live as long as possible so that his ruling year matched up with the calendar year.

    Hirohito died in Tokyo on January 7, 1989.

    cesarz hirohito biography

    Before that time, there nightly reports on the evening news on how much blood was given to him to keep him alive.

    Hirohito left behind a taxable estate of about $200 million. As a child, Hirohito was separated from his parents, as was custom, and given an imperial education at the Gakushuin School, also known as the Peers' School.

    Hirohito had been indoctrinated as young man in the belief that preserving the emporership was his most important duty.

    Bix said, "Hirohito was not Hitler or Mussolini. In January 1st, 1946, Hirohito publicly denounced "the notion that the emperor is a living god" and rejected the idea that "the Japanese are a superior to other races destined accordingly to rule the world."

    Nobel Prize-winning author One said one of the most momentous events in life was when the Emperor confessed after World War II that he was not a God.

    He, like other Japanese, had been taught in school that the Emperor was a indeed god and many believed that was the truth.

    See World War II

    Emperor Hirohito After World War II


    Macarthur and Hirohito Emperor Hirohito came very close to being executed as a World War II war criminal. Showa means "Enlightened Peace" — an ironic name for a player in one of the most violent episodes of world history — World War II.

    LINKS IN THIS WEBSITE: MEIJI PERIOD AND BEFORE WORLD WAR II factsanddetails.com; JAPAN IN CHINA: WAR AND OCCUPATION BEFORE AND DURING WORLD WAR II factsanddetails.com; OKINAWA, KAMIKAZES, HIROSHIMA AND THE END OF WORLD WAR II factsanddetails.com;SAMURAI, MEDIEVAL JAPAN AND THE EDO PERIOD factsanddetails.com; JAPAN IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY: TAISHO PERIOD (1912-1926) THE TOKYO EARTHQUAKE factsanddetails.com; JAPAN BEFORE WORLD WAR II: THE RISE OF JAPANESE MILITARISM AND NATIONALISM factsanddetails.com; JAPAN GEARS UP FOR WORLD WAR II factsanddetails.com; JAPANESE COLONIALISM AND EVENTS BEFORE WORLD WAR II factsanddetails.com JAPANESE EMPEROR AND IMPERIAL FAMILY Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPANESE EMPEROR’s DUTIES AND LIFESTYLE Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; ; EMPEROR AKIHITO AND EMPRESS MICHIKO Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPAN AFTER WORLD WAR II Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPAN’s ECONOMIC MIRACLE AND THE 1950s, 60s, AND 70s Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPAN’s BUBBLE ECONOMY AND COLLAPSE Factsanddetails.com/Japan

    Good Websites and Sources: Hirohito and Japan cidc.library.cornell.edu ; PBS Article pbs.org/wgbh ; ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Hirohito’s World War II Surrender Speech mtholyoke.edu/acad Good Japanese History Websites: ; Wikipedia article on History of Japan Wikipedia ; Samurai Archives samurai-archives.com ; National Museum of Japanese History rekihaku.ac.jp ; Japanese History Documentation Project openhistory.org/jhdp ; Cambridge University Bibliography of Japanese History to 1912 ames.cam.ac.uk ; Sengoku Daimyo sengokudaimyo.co ; English Translations of Important Historical Documents hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/iriki ; WWW-VL: History: Japan (semi good but dated source ) vlib.iue.it/history/asia/Japan ; Forums Delphi Forums, Good Discussion Group on Japanese History forums.delphiforums.com/samuraihistory ; Tousando tousando.proboards.com


    RECOMMENDED BOOKS: “Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan” by Herbet P.

    Bix (HarperCollins, 2000) Amazon.com is a critically acclaimed 800-page work that won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2000. After that Hirohito’s sequestered existence became even more sequestered.

    Hirohito's Family

    On January 26, 1924, Hirohito married Empress Nagako, the eldest daughter of Prince Kuni.

    He also represented Japan abroad. The conventional wisdom has traditionally been that Emperor Hirohito was a puppet of the military rulers, who ruled Japan from the late 1930s through World War II. He reportedly made no decisions, and was not involved in the running of the government.