The Japanese population was willing to fight and die to the last man and woman for Hirohito. Hitler not so much. You underestimate the power of a figurehead. Muhammed has been dead for 1,400 years and some Muslims will rip your face off if you try to draw a picture of him. Figureheads can be very dangerous.
Yes and obviously very useful too given that MacArthur is pretty damn well liked in Japan for the fact that he spared him and it clearly was extremely useful in keeping Japanese relations up and the reconstruction. Ultimately people liking you a lot doesn’t mean you are responsible for what they do or should be charged as a criminal for what they do. I really don’t get your murder boner here.
Before the end of the War Hirohito had a choice he could have spoken up. But he did not. The people would have literally lynched the Military Brass if he gave the word but he sat on his hands. So he does have blame.
When he tried to surrender he was nearly lynched himself man. That was post being nuked. He has importance but surrendering before was not something he actually could have pulled off.
To be honest I really couldn’t give much of a shit about post war war crime trials. What is and isn’t a war crime is just shit decided by the victors and it largely is just an exercise of power over a defeated enemy. It doesn’t actually matter or mean much. Saying that Hirohito should have been executed or whatever is just overly bloodthirsty and it’s stroking a vengeance boner over something you had literally zero participation in.
... Korea literally had the Kims, which are basically gods. Iraq had Saddam when we invaded over Kuwait, but the second time we deposed him. Syria also has Assad. Then if you include Syria, you are forgetting the Yugoslavia bombing in the 90s as well.
The Kims did not surrender, but arguably the latest Kim is the main person who can make peace. Iraq 'had' Saddam and the war ended. When we killed him the second time it has gone on and on on. Hard to say about the bombings/mini-invasions. Still Syria had revolutionaries. I remember seeing a chart of all the groups and who was fighting who at the height of the conflict and just noped on that.
Well sure, the US could not have invaded Japan and just let them win WW2 as well. They could have let the Kims have all of South Korea. Stuck means they cannot achieve an end of hostilities on favorable terms.
We did that in Vietnam then the NVA invaded 2 years after the fact. That's usually left out context though.
Sure but none of that changes what happened. Fact is we did leave on favorable terms. Then two years later the NVA invaded again. Diem's being a shit person and leader has no bearing on that. That being said we really didn't need to try and clean up French incompetence. We didn't learn anything either since we just knocked lybia down for them.
Yep we really should've told the French to pound sand.
Sadly, the Post-War French Government was just not communist enough to be left to hang. And thus it was more important to prop them up in order to weaken the PCF and secure Western Europe, than to support an ostensibly communist (remember, Ho was actually a member of the PCF before the war, taught at the Lenin University and remained in good standing with the Soviets throughout the great purge) resistance movement in Vietnam of all places