Hirohito (1901-1989) and Meiji/Taisho/Early Showa Japan
Emperor Hirohito, whose rule spanned more than half of the twentieth century (1926-89) and who witnessed Japan's military imperialism and post World War II economic expansion during his rule, was a good testimony to modern Japanese history: both its opportunities and its dilemmas. His upbringing and rule highlighted the paradoxical structure of the Meiji Constitution, where the emperor was given almost supreme power and presented the constitution as a gift to the people. The emperor was depicted as above politics, but all branches of the government, both houses of the diet, and the cabinet, had to report to him. The evaluation of Hirohito underwent several changes from World War II to the present. During the war, wartime documentaries of Japan often depicted Hirohito as a conniving emperor who goaded his people to war against the U.S. In the 1970s and 1980s, this view was changed, and Hirohito was more depicted as a constitutional monarch who passively agreed to war because he had to agreed to the majority view in his government. In a recent interpretation, historian Herbert Bix reversed that judgment, which caused some controversy, especially in Japan. This is just an example to show that historical depictions of persons and events are subject to change from historian to historian and over time. And that as students of history, it is important to know where you stand regarding historical figures and events by amassing historical knowledge and exercising your own interpretative skills.
1. The world Hirohito lived in.
Hirohito's life spanned the years when Japan rapidly expanded in Asia. His birth was against the background of a series of Japanese military victories, first against China (1894-1895), then against Russia (1904-05), and finally, the Japanese colonization (1895) and formal annexation (1910) of Korea. Hirohito had a very regimented education from very early on. When Emperor Meiji died in 1912, Hirohito was made crown prince and given the ranks of second lieutenant in the army and ensign (symbol) in the navy at the age of 11! Imagine the impact of this event on the young and timid boy, not to mention his loaded education at the hands of several important statesmen, including general Nogi Maresuke, a hero in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), was one of his tutors.
Hirohito also grew up at a time when the emperor's clout was waning. Because of the Taisho emperor's ill health, both physical and mental, and because of the establishment of a constitutional government that did grant the people certain rights (although it also cautioned people not to exercise them), the world was changing in Japanese politics in the 1910s and early 1920s. Peasants often complained about universal conscription. There was also public criticism of the wealth of the imperial house. There were many workers' strikes and peasants' food riots in the 1910s and 1920s, as Japan started to undergo industrialization and was experiencing some of its universal after-effects, such as long working hours, low wages, no protection of workers, and pollution. And as the Japanese government, typical of any industrializing country, used agriculture to subsidize the industrial sector.
2. Right wing backlash in the face of radicalized politics.
The growth of political radicalism led to right wing backlash, as discussed in the previous lecture. This liberal/right wing struggle was also reflected in court politics, where Hirohito was influenced by both right-wing, conservative statesmen such as Yamagata, and more liberal/pro-Western factions such as led by Hara Kei. In 1921, Prime Minister Hara Kei was stabbed to death by a right wing fanaticist simply for endorsing the crown prince's trip to Europe in the preceding months! Hirohito's trip to Europe, planned by the "left wing" statesmen and cabinet members, was to initiate him into popular politics and let him witness how European monarchs dealt with it. From King George V of England, a typical constitutional monarch, Hirohito might have learned how to assert authoritative power in an informal way.
The 1920s-30s saw rising democracy, universal male suffrage, party politics, and the activism of Communists and Socialists in Japan, which all contributed to the erosion of the unconditional loyalty to the emperor, hence the power of the state versus the popular masses. There were 35 incidents of lese majeste (libel against the emperor) from 1921-27, though not a significant number by our standards, serious in a country where the emperor was treated as of divine lineage. There was also a decline in the number of people who joined the army to defend the emperor or who were willing to die for the emperor from 1921 to 1945. It was against this background that the chief Japanese statesmen advanced the idea of the kokutai (national body politic), and punishments for those who violated it.
Definitions of kokutai
Once the kokutai as a concept was advanced, there were debates over how to define it.
Liberals tried to equate it with science and describe a symbolic monarchy. They were also uncomfortable with the divine origin of the emperor.
The Organ Theory: Professor Minobe Tatsukichi of the Law School of Tokyo University, proposed in 1923, who argued the emperor was not divine but his role served as head of the national polity.
For the right wing conservatives, unity of the definition of the kokutai was crucial in maintaining obedience to imperial rule. The contrasting definitions of kokutai showed the rise of individualism and democracy, as well as party politics, which all meant national division.In the face of rising liberalism and party politics, Hirohito came to rely more and more on Nichiren, a Buddhist denomination that was anti-democratic and anti-Socialist. Many of its ultra-nationalistic members became military officers.
The confrontation between the liberals and conservatives would become sharpened in the 1930s as the world, and Japan, were plunged into an economic depression and social problems intensified.