Why Hirohito, Who Raped China and Bombed Pearl Harbor, Wasn’t Punished

21 January 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

The ‘historical’ accounts about why Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, who possessed total power and authority over his generals hanged at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, say that the reason, why he was NOT punished nor even TRIED there (nor anywhere) for those enormous crimes, is that Emperor Hirohito WASN’T their actual boss but was instead a mere ’figurehead’ ‘god’ (as-if such a mythological human figure itself is exculpatory of a totally real human being). That’s an outright foolish belief, but it’s widespread amongst ‘historians’ concerning post-WW2 Japan. Thus, on 25 April 2022, International Business Times headlined “Japan Protests After Former Emperor Shown Alongside Hitler, Mussolini”, and alleged that “His role in Japan's military efforts with the Axis powers has remained ambiguous and controversial as many had viewed Hirohito as more of a figurehead that lacked political power.” It is “controversial and ambiguous” ONLY from fake ‘historians’ (who are sadly common). Hirohito’s having been worshipped, as a god, was like Hitler’s being worshipped, as the Fuehrer (he was Germany’s Almighty then), but this didn’t mean he wasn’t the supreme leader — which he (like Hitler) UNQUESTIONABLY WAS. (Indeed, Rome’s Emperors likewise had been worshipped as a ‘god’ until they decided, in the 4th Century, that, for them to be APPOINTED by ‘God’, made them even MORE powerful because even more ridiculously unreal (‘super’natural — intrinsically mysterious), and yet no one today says that they WEREN’T responsible for the millions of people killed on behalf of their rule, and an estimated 2 million died specifically by crucifixion (Jesus’s fate), on the authority and under the power of The Emperor. Of course, Hitler killed tens of millions, and so did Hirohito; so, each of those two was vastly worse — and killed those people during a far shorter timespan.) (As for Stalin, he wasn’t comparable to either of them, because the Soviet Union was in a defensive position against all imperialistic capitalist countries — which did not include FDR’s America, because FDR was intensely ANTI-imperialist — so Stalin had reason to be ‘paranoid’, and FDR knew this and also recognized that, if anything, Stalin’s loathing of the imperialistic Hitler exceeded even the imperialistic Churchill’s, and that Stalin was essential in order for the Allies to be able to succeed against Hitler and to produce a “United Nations” after WW2; so, FDR had no hesitation about allying with Stalin, not just during WW2 but in the post-WW2 world.*)

The lie that ONLY Hirohito’s generals were to blame for Japan’s war-crimes, is a profound ‘historical’ lie, like the ‘historical’ lie that Hitler had been only a ‘weak dictator’ — not the initiator and CEO of the Holocaust etc. This is a ‘historians’ lie about the Japan-war, a lie that is pervasive throughout the U.S. empire, simply BECAUSE Japan IS (after the War) a crucial part OF the U.S. empire.

And that’s not the ONLY such lie (though it IS the most profound one) about the Japan-War. For example, the book that won the 2000 Harry S. Truman Book Award, DOWNFALL: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, by Richard B. Frank, said on its page 246: “That Truman hoped Japan would choose a non-Soviet channel [to end the War] is understandable since, like the Japanese, Truman could see that such a role [for Russia — which under FDR had instead been America’s most crucial ally in defeating Hitler (and even Churchill privately said so) — this “role” being for Russia to serve as a ‘channel’ for defeating Japan] would permit the Soviets to extract a middleman’s price for services.” Frank was assuming that at that time, on 25 July 1945, the Soviet Union, under Stalin, was no longer an “ally” but maybe already an enemy of the United States (which is false), and that Truman DIDN’T WANT the Soviet Army to invade Japan from Manchuria (which ALSO is false: Truman said he felt relieved when Stalin agreed to do that, and the Soviets invaded Japan on 8 August 1945 and captured 1.5 million Japanese soldiers, ending the war), and Frank said that the Soviet forces invading Japan would have been a “middleman” instead of being a CONQUEROR or CO-CONQUEROR of Japan — possibly enabling the U.S. to conquer Hirohito without any U.S. invasion of Japan other than perhaps by backing up the Soviet invasion force (which was right there and ready to go) by American air power (without any need for using the atomic bomb) — Frank was assuming a NUMBER of crucial FALSEHOODS in his ‘history’. In any case, Stalin let Truman have Japan, and also allowed him to have part of Berlin, but soon became convinced that Truman was, in fact, an implacable enemy, and that a Cold War had actually begun on 25 July 1945.

As soon as Truman received notification, on 25 July 1945, that the atomic bomb test had been a success, he decided, on the advice of Churchill and Eisenhower, to nuke Japan before the Soviets were scheduled to invade Japan, and this settled Truman’s mind to do that: it settled his mind to start what now is called the “Cold War.”

That’s how false the ‘history’ of the end of WW2 is throughout the U.S. empire (which resulted from that decision by Truman — to keep the Soviets out of Japan until America would already have taken it alone to make it the first acquisition by the new U.S. global hegemony, the all-inclusive U.S. empire that would now start to be built under Truman’s Administration — and cemented-in under Eisenhower’s — creating the “military-industrial complex”).

On 15 August 1945, Hirohito, in his first-ever public address to the Japanese people, quit the war and alleged to them the following lies:

To strive for the common prosperity and happiness of all nations, as well as for the security and well-being of our subjects, is the solemn obligation which has been handed down by out Imperial ancestors and which lies close to our heart. Indeed, we declared war on America and Britain out of our sincere desire to ensure Japan’s self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia, it being far from our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.

He kept the lies going on them, just as the U.S. regime — which Truman actually created on 25 July 1945 — has kept the lies going on the American people and then throughout the U.S. empire (which he and Eisenhower co-created).

The CIA-edited and written Wikipedia (which blacklists (blocks from linking to) sites that aren’t CIA-approved) says in its article on Hirohito

Japan occupied Chinese territories and established puppet governments. Such aggression was recommended to Hirohito by his chiefs of staff and prime minister Fumimaro Konoe; Hirohito did not voice objection to the invasion of China.[32][page needed][33][1][34] …

Hirohito was not prosecuted for war crimes at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal even though the Japanese had waged war in his name. The head of the Allied occupation of the country, Douglas MacArthur, believed that a cooperative emperor would facilitate a peaceful occupation and other U.S. postwar objectives. MacArthur therefore excluded any evidence from the tribunal which could have incriminated Hirohito or other members of the royal family.[1] In 1946, Hirohito was pressured by the Allies into renouncing his divinity. Under Japan's new constitution drafted by U.S. officials, his role as emperor was redefined in 1947 as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people". He died in 1989, and was succeeded as emperor by his eldest son, Akihito.

Although Japan and not Germany had invaded America (at Pearl Harbor) and so we entered WW2 against Japan and not Germany, Truman’s regime let the Japanese version of Hitler off as-if Hirohito hadn’t even invaded America, and he did this (protected Hirohito) because Hirohito was “a cooperative emperor” and “would facilitate a peaceful occupation and other U.S. postwar objectives” (including especially against China and Russia — BOTH of which had been America’s allies during FDR’s Presidency). Truman should have been hanged.

Truman’s crime was even worse than I have already documented here: Hirohito had actually come to General MacArthur fully expecting to be treated like Hitler would have been treated: he met MacArthur by saying, "I come to you, General MacArthur, to offer myself to the judgment of the powers you represent as the one to bear sole responsibility for every political and military decision made and action taken by my people in the conduct of war.” The U.S. Government rejected his admission of guilt. The only article on the Web that presents the truth and documents its sources is “Did Hirohito offer to stand trial for war crimes, but was turned down by the US?”, and it says:

The meeting was described in MacArthur's memoirs [page 288]. The relevant excerpt is:

“I tried to make it as easy for him as I could, but I knew how deep and dreadful must be his agony of humiliation. I had an uneasy feeling he might plead his own cause against indictment as a war criminal ... But my fears were groundless.

“What he said was this: ‘I come to you, General MacArthur, to offer myself to the judgment of the powers you represent as the one to bear sole responsibility for every political and military decision made and action taken by my people in the conduct of war.’

“A tremendous impression swept me. This courageous assumption of a responsibility implicit with death, a responsibility clearly belied by facts of which I was fully aware, moved me to the very marrow of my bones. He was an Emperor by inherent birth, but in that instant I knew I faced the First Gentleman of Japan in his own right.”

- MacArthur, Douglas. Reminiscences. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. 1964.

All of the ‘historians’ posturing that Japan’s generals had not been loyally adhering to the instructions from their boss and even ‘God’ Hirohito are just part of the U.S. empire’s staged ‘history’, not historical at all. This lie-based protection of Hirohito was, in reality, part of the start of Truman’s Cold War — not part of the end of WW2.

MacArthur should have been hanged (along with Truman), as a traitor to America, who actually admired the man who bombed Pearl Harbor and MacArthur wouldn’t even accept that man’s admission of guilt. This letting Hirohito off for all of his enormous crimes was also and especially an insult to the 20 million Chinese that Hirohito’s forces had just slaughtered. And right away, Truman went hostile both to China and to the Soviet Union, two U.S. Allies during WW2. Under Truman, the U.S. was taken over by what is now called “the military-industrial complex” and the “Deep State.”

When Hirohito voluteered to say to General MacArthur that “I … offer myself to the judgment of the powers you represent as the one to bear sole responsibility for every political and military decision made and action taken by my people in the conduct of war,” he said “every political and military decision,“ and that was “every,” not merely “some.” He was, to Japan, what Hitler was to Germany, but Hitler had already killed himself, and Hirohito was protected by Douglas MacArthur, whom President Truman had assigned to draw up the charter for the Court and to select the judges at the Tokyo Trials. In fact, some of the judges protested that MacArthur wouldn’t include Hirohito as a defendant, and one of the judges — the American — quit early, because he refused to participate in show-trials and fake ‘justice’. MacArthur selected his replacement.

The U.S. national World War Two Museum’s article on “Tokyo War Crimes Trial” says: “VERDICT AND EXECUTIONS: On September 9, 1947, 15 months and over 1,500 pages of opinion later, judgements were ready to be read. Many judges released opinions outside of the court with a common theme — the absence of Japan's Emperor, Hirohito.”

* As regards FDR, the ‘historians’ misrepresent him as having been shallow instead of his having been the deep-thinking genius that he actually was. He recognized not only that Stalin’s post-WW2 support would be essential in order for the post-War U.N. that FDR named and started in August 1941 to plan, to be able to succeed at all, but that this U.N. would need to have authority over ONLY international laws and NEVER over intranational (internal, domestic) laws. He made that crucial distinction, but when the U.N. became finalized, at the San Francisco Conference, during 25 April to 26 June 1945, Truman made sure that no such provision would be included in its Charter. Also, FDR’s plan for the U.N. to have a monopoly control over geostrategic weaponry to ENFORCE its international laws was nixed by Truman. So, we were left with a post-WW2 world that includes only the talking-forum U.N. that we have today. FDR was repeatedly challenged by even members of his own Administration on his rejection of the idea that a U.N. would IGNORE intranational matters, but his mind never changed on that crucial issue. On 3 September 1943, he shocked Cardinal Spellman (the pro-imperialist who convinced millions of Catholics to vote for the neoconservative Truman in 1948) by saying that after the War, Stalin must be allowed to have domestic control over his internal sphere. (The ‘historian’ linked-to there sides with Spellman on that matter.) Also, the great historian Frank Costigliola wrote in his 2012 Roosevelt's Lost Alliances: How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War, (page 217) that on 19 November 1944, FDR spoke with his Ambassador to Moscow Averell Harriman who promptly wrote in a Memorandum “that he didn’t care whether the countries bordering Russia became communized.” Contrast that with Truman’s position, which was (as-of 25 July 1945 and it has been the U.S. Government’s position ever since then) the exact opposite.

Any historian who wants to see my entire argument that Truman was the worst President in U.S. history can see it here and in the linked-to online evidences herein. The only important thing that I would add to this argument is that Truman also created Israel (which fact likewise is covered-up by ‘historians’), which likewise continues to control U.S. policy, for Israel against Palestinians.

PS: If you like this article, please email it to all your friends or otherwise let others know about it. None of the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media will likely publish it (nor link to it, since doing that might also hurt them with Google or etc.). I am not asking for money, but I am asking my readers to spread my articles far and wide, because I specialize in documenting what the Deep State is constantly hiding — what the ‘news’-media ignore if they can, and deny if they must. This is, in fact, today’s samizdat.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.Eric’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.