Hirohito

Biography

Ruled through Manchuria, China war, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima. His war responsibility remains contested, the imperial conference decisions, the surrender broadcast 1945, first his people heard his voice. MacArthur kept him as symbol, the human declaration 1946, renouncing divinity. Postwar Japan growth, he reigned as biologist monarch, the longest verified reign, 62 years of Showa, bright and dark.