Hirohito's Impact On Japan

During the Meiji restoration, militarism and nationalism began to take over Japan. Unknown to the rest of the world, Japan had started focusing in on themselves. This is what initially sparked the nationalism and militarism that eventually took over Japan. Moving forward, after World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Japan had now gained control of Shandong in China. The addition of Shandong was exactly what Japan needed at the time. After focusing in on themselves for many years, Japan was now in the hunt to gather more materials for trade and wealth, which there was a plethora of in the neighboring country of China. Emperor Hirohito of Japan was counted on to continue the advancement of Japanese troops in China, but he decided to

Given Japan’s militaristic ways before World War II, the aggressive actions taken by the Japanese government are no surprise to anyone. The power distributed by Emperor Hirohito to his advisors was eventually taken advantage of, and Hirohito could no longer contain his own officials (Sanger). If Hirohito had eventually taken charge, there was an extremely high chance of something bad happening to him or his family. He could lose the support of the Japanese public, and there was even a chance of him being assassinated. For those reasons emperor Hirohito decided to keep his mouth shut (Sanger). Prince Kan'in Kotohito was an army general from 1931-1940 that had traveled alongside Hirohito on his tour to Europe (History.net). Eventually, due to the relationship and trust built, Hirohito named Prince Kan’in Kotohito chief of the imperial army (History.net). During his time as chief Japan was accused of using chemical and bacteriological weapons as well as committing the executions of chinese civilians during the Nanjing massacre (History.net). This is where the confusion comes into play. Although Hirohito had given the