gral
Well-known member
Now as for the actual argument: that Hirohito was an ignorant puppet is nonsense. He knew what was going on, he gave his full acquiesence to the broader ideas if not some of the gorier details, and he himself realized that there was a good chance he was going to be killed at worst or forced to abdicate in favor of one of his younger brothers at best.
Not sure whether this is addressed to me or not, but my point wasn't that he was ignorant(although I doubt that people showed him the details of the fall of Nanjing, for example); it was that he was a pushover, just as he was raised to be. Hirohito was supposed to be a rubber-stamp for the Genro, and when they died in the late 20's and early 30's he became one for their sucessors. It's telling that he only found the strength to defy the ones around him when he saw extinction of his country and culture as a real possibility, and even then, you can say he simply backed a different government faction instead of assuming power.