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00:04In the history of the 20th century there are few more controversial figures than
00:09Emperor Hirohito of Japan. This is the man who approved the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
00:17In the surprise bombing America's Pacific Fleet was crippled and nearly destroyed.
00:26With many documents either deliberately destroyed or still held under wraps in Imperial archives,
00:33the issue of the Emperor's responsibility for Japan's war conduct has remained shrouded in complexity.
00:40But since his death, fresh evidence has gradually emerged prompting a re-examination.
00:46How responsible was Hirohito for the war? And how did he evade prosecution and keep his throne?
01:12Seven months after the Emperor's surrender, preparations were being made to bring those responsible for wartime atrocities to trial.
01:21Twenty-two Germans and twenty-eight Japanese had been charged.
01:26War criminals in hiding were being rooted out in every corner of the globe.
01:30A deputation moved towards the Emperor's palace.
01:40Hirohito was preparing for a most private hearing.
01:43Afflicted with a cold, he dressed and then retired to bed.
01:52The five officials had come to witness a rehearsal of a defence for a trial that never actually happened.
02:02What Hirohito said remained unpublished until after his death.
02:07The interpreter's copy turned up in his daughter's home in Wyoming and was published in 1990.
02:42He said,
02:42He said,
02:4660 years on, there are those who accept Hirohito's defence.
02:52He said,
02:57He said,
02:59He said,
03:07He said,
03:08Years buddy,
03:09What would he do?
03:11he is done so much together.
03:16Others, do not accept this.
03:32A full understanding of Hirohito's role must begin with the reign of his grandfather, 70 years before the war began.
03:42Before 1868, the emperor of Japan was little more than a powerless figurehead.
03:46But after Hirohito's grandfather came to the throne, the emperor was once again the ruler of Japan.
03:53Constitutionally, the emperor headed the army, navy and government.
03:58In time, he was even declared a god in the religion State Shinto.
04:02Real power, however, depended very much on the times and the character of the individual monarch.
04:10The Japanese political system was very complex, very contradictory.
04:18It's a messy system.
04:21Prime ministers are not selected by parliament.
04:24They are appointed.
04:25So you have a system that's not geared to react, let's say, in a straight line.
04:29The emperor is part of that mess, I mean, if you like.
04:32He's part of that complexity.
04:33He's part, he's right there in the thicket of things.
04:37In 1901, Hirohito, the heir to the Chrysanthemum throne, was born.
04:42He was raised in the Imperial Palace, an enclosed 280-acre park.
04:49Japanese emperors are brought up in isolation from their parents.
04:53They're brought up in isolation from the world.
04:55They're brought up in isolation from what we would call reality, practically in a prison.
05:02The young Hirohito had, an attendant wrote, slow reflexes and clumsy fingers,
05:08while his brother noted, when Hiro falls down, he doesn't know how to get up.
05:13I think he was anything but a strong character,
05:17made worse or perhaps created by that kind of sheltered, smotheringly sheltered childhood.
05:25And being brought up to preserve the throne, to symbolize the throne,
05:31to be the emperor with the model of his grandfather Meiji,
05:35which was a very strong model, too strong for him to live up to,
05:39he didn't have that kind of fiber,
05:41made him fearful that he would blow it,
05:44that he would somehow do something to detract or disturb the imperial authority.
05:58Hirohito's lavish enthronement in 1928
06:00enlivened a country with political problems and a poverty-stricken countryside.
06:05However, during the next few years,
06:08extreme militarists would hijack the patriotic mood,
06:11and a new generation would learn their ideas of unquestioning emperor worship
06:15and loyalty to the Japanese state.
06:19One year, he is the one who is going to be the king of the month,
06:24and he is the king of the month.
06:30He is a king of the month.
06:32I can't remember what he is.
06:35He has said to the priest.
06:36He is the king of the party.
06:39He is the king of the month.
06:43He is the king for the native Waits,
06:46he is the king of the month.
06:47But even in the book of Xuxin, there are about 30 or 40% of the king.
06:54There are about 1% of the human religion,
06:56such as the gods and the gods,
06:58such as the gods and the gods,
07:00there are about 1% or so.
07:09Hierarchy was all important.
07:14In the background of the 19th century, there was a
07:16class of the 19th century.
07:21For example, the king was a king, and the family,
07:27and the people, and the people.
07:31And then the other time, the people of the country were
07:33called the black, and the people of the country,
07:36and the other people of the country were
07:39the Chinese bore the brunt of the new nationalism on September the 18th 1931 a bomb exploded on
08:02Japanese held territory in Manchuria northern China blaming Chinese bandits the Japanese
08:08army invaded in reality Japanese units acting without government sanction had planted the bomb
08:15themselves knowing this the Emperor had a crucial choice should he condemn the rogue elements
08:22responsible and within the system's constraints could he voice an opinion I think it's important
08:31when you look at the Emperor's actions that you realize that he didn't do things so if you say
08:38the Emperor refused to court-martial or the Emperor decided to cover it up you're missing
08:46the shadow and the veil in between where when the military decides to cover it up
08:53the Emperor thinks yes yes I agree with that and it's that agree agreement and approval
09:01that gives his imperial sort of stamp and seal to it and that's the way it works the next year
09:12he
09:12issued a statement which praised the actions of the Japanese army describing the invasion as only
09:19natural in view of conditions at the time in the summer of 1937 with nationalism now at fever pitch Japanese
09:33forces invaded the heart of China itself some claim the Emperor could have stopped the war others say at
09:40best he could only influence and never control the military in private his defenders argue he was deeply
09:50opposed to the war being fought in his name but in public appearances the Emperor's image was
09:56increasingly that of a military leader the Emperor also performed sacred rituals encouraging his troops
10:04efforts reinforcing propaganda which framed it as a holy war
10:35日本人の一般の市民はね政府のやることが正しいし中国とかあるいは韓国北朝鮮という国々を自分たちよりもちょっと低い能力の国民というような考え方を教えられてもいましたしそう考えていましたから
10:37So I was looking for the war.
10:39I was looking for the war.
10:42So I was looking for the war.
10:47It was very easy to think about it.
10:51The war was the most important time in Japan.
10:55I was not sure when it happened.
10:57When it happened, it was a war.
11:00So it was a good time.
11:28The Western democracies now became particularly alarmed by the
11:33threat of Japanese expansion, not only at the threat of Japanese expansion, but at its brutal implementation.
12:03When I asked him to ask him, he was killed.
12:10He said, he said, he said,
12:12In the case of the three-eighths, it was a problem.
12:15Although, in the case of the three-eighths,
12:19the two-eighths are an industrialized thief.
12:22The thief is a problem.
12:27This is a problem for the three-eighths.
12:28Father, the king of the king was just doing it.
12:30Therefore, the king and the king were all done.
12:50Over the next nine years, Chinese people suffered horribly at the hands of the Japanese army.
12:57We'll never know the exact number of deaths, but many millions died.
13:03Many were civilians murdered in deliberate annihilation campaigns.
13:08Emperor Hirohito's involvement in the crimes remains a contentious issue.
13:18Did he know the details? No. Did he order it? No.
13:21But he knew enough about atrocities there for us to say that these atrocities happened when he was the head
13:27of state.
13:30The emperor and his men thought that these atrocities were part of winning the war.
13:35This was a war in which these kinds of things seemed to be part of the war itself, of prosecuting
13:41the war.
13:42And so the emperor knew enough and he saw it as part of the wartime necessities.
13:52When Japan drove further into Southeast Asia in 1941, President Roosevelt took decisive action, placing an oil embargo on Japan
14:02and freezing Japanese assets in the United States.
14:08At this point, some of Hirohito's ministers began to suggest a daring and drastic course of action.
14:15The tiny nation of Japan might be forced to launch a pre-emptive strike on the United States' mighty naval
14:21machine to prevent the U.S., they argued, from attacking Japan.
14:28After the war, Hirohito's defenders claimed the emperor had consistently struggled to avoid hostilities.
14:35Certain records of meetings before Pearl Harbor present a rather different picture.
14:40On September the 5th, an agenda for war was discussed.
14:46He was sent to the San Jose.
14:50The� Andes was speaking of the anthropologist.
14:51He said, he was signed to the UN Wilmington and the Marine.
14:54He said, there was a link in the U.S.
14:56He said, there was an answer to the UN.
14:57The U.S.
14:59The UN said.
15:02The UN said.
15:02The UN said.
15:02Yes.
15:03The UN said.
15:08The UN said.
15:09The UN said.
15:10The UN said.
15:11The UN said.
15:13The UN said.
15:33The Prime Minister, Fumimaro Kanoe, then asked the Emperor if he wanted to alter a policy document which accepted war
15:40with the United States should negotiations fail.
15:52The Prime Minister, Fumimaro Kanoe, now took a most important step.
16:14He supported the appointment of the hawkish military leader, General Hideki Tojo.
16:20He had definite likes and dislikes about the Japanese leadership and the people that he wanted to see or didn't
16:28want to see appointed as Prime Minister.
16:31And he liked Tojo. He was very happy to have Tojo as the Prime Minister.
16:36Does that mean he chose him? No.
16:38But when he says, Tojo, I like that man, that is, again, the imperial seal of approval.
16:57Although Tojo's political experience was limited, he possessed one key personal attribute in abundance.
17:23On November 30, 1941, with war ever closer, one of Hirohito's brothers took the exceptional
17:32step of speaking politics to the Emperor.
17:55The Emperor turned to a minister present.
18:00The grave situation was underlined.
18:03The grave situation was underlined.
18:53The minutes of this meeting ended with an observation from the scribe himself.
18:58The Emperor nodded in agreement to each statement the Prime Minister made and exhibited not the slightest anxiety.
19:13So on December the 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed.
19:24When the Japanese attacked, we thought this was a dirty trick.
19:28Those stinkers, they attacked us by surprise in our own base.
19:34They weren't fair.
19:35They weren't honest.
19:36They didn't do battle with us at sea.
19:39Instead of that, the sneaky Japanese outsmarted us.
19:43After all, it was a Sunday morning.
19:46Many people had gone or prepared to go to church services.
19:50That was another thing that angered us about the Japanese.
19:53They attacked us during our church services.
19:56We thought they would have had a better sense than to do that.
20:00It wasn't fair.
20:04The diary of Hirohito's naval aide records the day of the attack.
20:09Throughout the day, the Emperor seemed to be in a splendid mood.
20:14Eight hours after the unannounced attack was confirmed a success, the Emperor put his imperial stamp on the order.
20:24He was an active participant in this decision-making process to attack Pearl Harbor.
20:31I mean, he was there.
20:32He heard.
20:33He knew.
20:33And he had the highest moral authority.
20:39Hence, at the least, he has moral responsibility.
20:44The Japanese people knew the stakes of war were now being raised.
20:49He was concerned.
20:50On your other hand, the Japanese Empire was a political point of việc that's false.
21:00One of the other things happened during the war.
21:06The Japanese Empire of the British Empire was not forced to go into the war.
21:07First of all, they have this fact that it had a good reputation.
21:11He's also responsible for this.
21:12Like a military empire, the Japanese Empire was lost throughout the war.
21:16Some people knew that they were wrong and said that it was a very irrational.
21:18But, since the Japanese Empire had the worst one, he had sohosted them.
21:18so I could only I could only run for a while.
21:24During the first few months of war the Japanese military won a series of
21:28extraordinary victories expanding south almost as far as Australia and west into
21:35Burma. Having taken most of East Asia, Hirohito called on his troops to exert
21:42yourselves to even greater efforts he is a cheerleader for the war at every turn
21:49the Emperor agrees with his ministers with his military they all agree about
21:57this escalating aggression and war with the war still young Japanese troops
22:04fought with heartfelt zeal the emperor publicly celebrated the victories images
22:25of the enemy's setbacks were flaunted
22:30then the American fight back began
22:44by early 1943 with the tide clearly turning against Japan the US began taking one Pacific
22:52Island after another by July 1944 Japan had lost control of the air and the seas throughout
23:01the Pacific and yet Hirohito's government would not contemplate defeat the Emperor issued rousing
23:10rallying cries to his troops rise to the challenge make a tremendous effort achieve a splendid victory
23:20however someone had to take responsibility for the military setbacks the cabinet now collapsed taking
23:28with it the prime minister general tojo no new credit at the beginning a cover new on June day
23:58after tojo's resignation the war entered what for Japan was its bloodiest phase the Emperor demanded
24:05renewed renewed tenacity to smash our enemies evil purposes up to two hundred and thirty thousand Japanese
24:13people died during the defense of Okinawa Japan's most southerly island
24:19they don't go say that to youことは there are you know are it okay she's not the Okinawa
24:25they come on more toして戦ったその戦ったあの悲惨な戦争というものがきちっとそういう
24:39指導者にはきちっとしたことが伝わってないのかなっていうな determined to keep fighting
24:42whatever the cost the Japanese army promoted exaggerated stories of what defeat would mean for their
24:48friends and family advocating suicide over capture
25:04many expected that their women would be assaulted that they're that they would be under constant humiliation
25:20in some cases like tokashiki island near Okinawa the army's calls for mass suicide turned to murder
25:28from a
25:51So I had to kill him and kill him.
25:56When I was born, I was born 16 years old,
26:02I was born in the first time
26:04and I was born in the first time.
26:07I was born in the first time
26:07I was born in the first time.
26:11I was born in the first time.
26:12The war was not so much.
26:16But the brothers and sisters also wanted to fight against the war.
26:20The war was the war.
26:23The war was the war.
26:25The war was the war.
26:26The war was the war.
26:27In 1955, it was a war.
26:42The military, unwilling to accept the increasingly inevitable defeat, deployed, with Hirohito's
26:49approval, suicidal air force units, the kamikaze.
26:57Not all of them went to death willingly.
27:01I thought, if we don't want to make a decision, we would have to wait for them to make a
27:10decision.
27:11So, if we don't want to make a decision, we can't win.
27:16rock at all.
28:05The Kamikaze died in vain, for still the Allied forces advanced, and still neither Hirohito nor his cabinet would accept
28:13defeat.
28:15In Japan, people had begun turning against those they blamed for the war.
28:44They were taken away from one week, three months, and three months.
28:52On February the 14th, 1945, the former Prime Minister Kanoe, fearful of an uprising, had once again tried to turn
29:01the Emperor against war.
29:03The war was not a war.
29:15The war was not a war.
29:24The war was not a war.
29:51A month later, American bombers were targeting Japan's cities, killing hundreds of thousands
29:57of civilians. With Hirohito's cabinet unwilling to accept the unconditional surrender demanded
30:04by the Allies, the bloody momentum of the war continued to intensify.
30:18On August 6th, at 8.15am, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
30:24Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. On August 9th, the U.S. dropped
30:32the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Six days later, Japan at last surrendered.
30:45On August 15th, just before noon, the Japanese people heard their emperor's voice for the
30:52first time. The language of his radio broadcast was stilted and archaic, courtly Japanese.
31:00Eventually, listeners made out the words, endure the unendurable and bear the unbearable.
31:07They knew this was surrender. By the end of the war, Japan was barely recognisable.
31:16It was a really devastated country. Places like Tokyo were completely ruined. And people had,
31:26you know, they had nothing to eat. The housing had to be rebuilt. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
31:34completely destroyed. And what people were thinking about at the time was really how to keep alive.
31:41How do I get my next meal?
31:56As U.S. occupation forces approached, what would the emperor decide to do?
32:02As U.S. occupation forces approached, what would the emperor decide to do?
32:13As U.S. occupation forces approached, they had the hard time to kill them.
32:20They were poisoned. They would have to fall apart.
32:26The world was able to destroy them.
32:39Thousands of documents were burnt on government instructions.
32:43Evidence of decision-taking and responsibility was systematically destroyed.
32:49Some Japanese were clearly seeking to cover up their past.
32:53But a new chapter would bring a new dimension.
32:56To my mind, the most important part of the history and story of the emperor
33:01is the whitewash that occurred after the war under the Americans,
33:06with the cooperation of the palace and the Japanese conservatives,
33:09the whitewash that wrote Hirohito's role out of the war.
33:16On August the 30th, 1945, a man arrived who would be instrumental in deciding Hirohito's fate.
33:24The Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur,
33:29began seven years of occupation.
33:34MacArthur summoned the emperor.
33:36On September the 27th, 1945,
33:40Hirohito swapped his military costume for mourning dress
33:43and went to face his uncertain destiny.
33:47Flashbulbs caught this historic meeting.
33:52The famous photograph of General MacArthur standing next to Emperor Hirohito was staged.
33:58It was staged by MacArthur.
34:00And essentially this was a photo opportunity to show, I think, MacArthur as the boss.
34:08Of course, it appeared in every Japanese newspaper and in every American newspaper that we saw.
34:19And it created the impression that there's no doubt who was boss.
34:24The photograph suggested a significant new interpretation of the emperor's role.
34:29I think after the war that the Japanese and the Americans and the emperor himself and the palace wanted to
34:38show that Hirohito had been helpless,
34:40had been a puppet, had been at the mercy of his ministers.
34:50The Japanese imperial house built relationships with MacArthur's team, inviting U.S. officers around for social occasions, including imperial duck
34:59hunts.
35:09Meanwhile, 28 arrest warrants were issued for those accused of war crimes.
35:15Kanoe, who tried to end the war, was one.
35:19Another was Tojo.
35:22One figure escaped the net, however.
35:24The emperor was taken off the list of those to be tried on MacArthur's explicit instructions.
35:32The fear was that if the emperor were deposed, order in Japan would disappear and MacArthur then would require a
35:43very large occupation authority to control the insurgency.
35:51I think it worked.
35:53If you want compliance from the Japanese, you'll get it most by waving an emperor at them.
35:59Another reason was that MacArthur's desire to use the method of indirect rule for the occupation.
36:09That is, that the American occupation would rule through the Japanese government.
36:17MacArthur received a directive from Washington requesting he abolish the emperor institution or reform it along more democratic lines.
36:26MacArthur, however, had no intention of abandoning the emperor.
36:31He seems to have taken a liking to him.
36:34He seems to have fancied himself, of course, the blue-eyed shogun himself.
36:39I think that MacArthur was running the show.
36:42I think he felt that there was some sort of affinity between him and this emperor.
36:48Some of us wondered whether he wanted, you know, a very smooth occupation was that he was already thinking of
36:57running for president of the United States.
36:59And usually it's civilians in America who get elected and probably thought if he could leave a legacy of very
37:11smooth occupation and a good democratic constitution,
37:18that he would not be regarded so much as a military person that maybe could pass as a civilian.
37:26I think that a lot of MacArthur's actions have to be viewed in that context. He really has ambition.
37:37MacArthur also believed keeping the emperor would prevent a communist uprising in destitute Japan.
37:45To begin transforming Japan into a democracy, MacArthur first turned to Japanese bureaucrats.
37:52General MacArthur decided that he couldn't get anywhere with the Japanese for a new constitution.
38:00He had asked them to draft several times and every time the draft came in, it was exactly the same
38:07as the Meiji constitution and was not democratic at all.
38:11So finally in February, he decided he would have the staff write a draft of the constitution.
38:18I did raise some questions about the feasibility or the wisdom of writing of a group of military government officers
38:30writing a constitution for a major nation in such a short time and with no Japanese participation.
38:39And as a result, I was sent on rest and recreation during which the constitution was drafted.
38:48Now, one didn't question or appear to be inclined to question any decision that came directly from MacArthur.
39:00The emperor too was to be democratized.
39:04Hirohito even studied an illustrated picture book about the role of the British royal family.
39:12Hirohito's former ministers, who had been charged with war crimes, started bowing out.
39:17Fumimaru Kanohi took poison.
39:27Others employed more violent methods.
39:46General Tojo shot himself.
39:50However, an American GI gave his blood to keep the former prime minister alive for his trial.
40:01By spring 1946, the pressure to have the emperor tried simply would not go away.
40:10As Tojo sat alone in his cell, a meeting between one of MacArthur's right-hand men and Japanese officials was
40:18arranged.
40:20Some of the allies, particularly the Soviet Union, would like the emperor to be tried for war crimes.
40:27To counter this, it would be most convenient if the Japanese side could prove to us that the emperor is
40:33utterly blameless.
40:35Now, I think the upcoming war trials offer the perfect opportunity to do that.
40:43Tojo, in particular, should be made to shoulder all the responsibility at his trial.
40:49I want you to have Tojo say as follows.
40:53At the imperial conference, prior to the start of the war, I had already decided to push for war.
41:00Even if his majesty, the emperor, was against going to war with the United States.
41:08I certainly agree.
41:10The best way to establish his majesty's innocence would be to have the indicted ministers Tojo and Shimaru take all
41:23responsibility.
41:27While preparations for the Tokyo trial for war crimes got underway, the emperor was kept at a safe distance, immersing
41:34himself in his love of natural sciences.
41:43The most important defendant at the trial was the man who was prime minister when the attack on Pearl Harbor
41:49took place, General Tojo.
41:53All seemed to be following MacArthur's wishes.
41:56But then Tojo, under cross-questioning, made a fateful slip.
42:02My grandfather said,
42:06After all, I will have to move the U.S.
42:18But it's not as for the seizure of all in the world.
42:24You can have to look at what they are for.
42:38The American prosecutor immediately sent word to the emperor's advisers, and Tojo was contacted in prison.
42:47Accused of imperiling the emperor's position, Tojo responded,
42:59He was subsequently instructed on what to say when he was next in court.
43:57He said,
44:01By October, fulfilling MacArthur's plan, the Japanese people saw their god-emperor climb down from his pedestal and begin good
44:10-will tours and walkabouts.
44:14The common touch didn't always come naturally to him.
44:18On seeing the devastation at Hiroshima, his reaction was,
44:23There seems to have been considerable damage here.
44:29On January the 1st, 1946, he publicly renounced his status as a god.
44:36His transformation was complete.
44:41Without the Americans, I don't know what would have happened.
44:44Because I don't know if there would have been a publicity machine efficient enough to have...
44:50It was almost a Hollywood production, that they could transform that emperor in a matter of months.
44:55In November, 1946, Hirohito ceremonially accepted the new Japanese constitution,
45:04which declared the emperor a symbol of the state.
45:10In late 1948, six Japanese war criminals, including Tojo, were executed for crimes against humanity.
45:41Hirohito remained on the throne for the next 44 years.
45:44During that time, he saw MacArthur fired by Truman, and the American occupation end in 1952.
46:02Hirohito witnessed an extraordinary economic revival in Japan.
46:06In 1975, the man so reviled during the war even paid a visit to the USA and was filmed with
46:14Mickey Mouse.
46:21At 88, Emperor Hirohito lay on his deathbed.
46:27The issue of his war responsibility still a taboo in Japan.
46:35There are those who believe that it remains so.
46:39After Hirohito's death, Yasuo Wakatsuki decided to write a book about the topic, which he took to publishers.
46:48He was told to write a book about the names of the names of the people who were told.
47:15In 1990, Hitoshi Motojima, then mayor of Nagasaki, was shot in the back by a rightist after suggesting that the
47:23emperor bore responsibility for the war.
47:25The king of the king has a war.
47:35It's normal, right?
47:51今でもね、僕の言ったのがね、そんなに大きな響きをね、だって、響きあるはずないでしょう。誰かが言うと、常識でしょう。
48:15なぜ、最高の責任者がちゃんと責任を取ったことをやってくれなかったっていう、そういうふうに向いていってしまう。だから、自分の話しすることは、私らの兵隊の仲間では誰も話ししないんです。ただ、悪いことは、みんな黙っておこうと。いわゆる日本の恥になるから、黙っとけ。
48:19I think before the war, people had a pretty clear idea of how things worked. But after the war, they
48:24were told a story that was fake. The post-war story about responsibility, which says, this war was made by
48:3428 people, and we have tried them, we've put them on trial, and we have hanged a number of them,
48:39and the rest of them are in prison.
48:41It's all over. The emperor's not responsible. The people are not responsible. The millions of, or hundreds of thousands of
48:48people involved in this war are not responsible. That's the travesty.
48:51never mind.
49:13And I hold a Huawei ?
49:21Never mind.
49:21But you 싶 as the one over?