Emperor Hirohito: The Life and Legacy of Japan's Ruler during World War II

*Includes pictures*Includes a bibliography for further reading“It was not clear to me that our course was unjustified. Even now I am not sure how historians will allocate the responsibility for the war.” – Emperor HirohitoThe man known to most of the world as Emperor Hirohito ruled during some of the most tumultuous years in Japanese history. When he came to the throne in 1926, he inherited control of a country which had only recently emerged as a major industrial and world power, and through the aggressive expansion and wars of the 1930s, Hirohito was at the head of one of the world’s foremost powers. Throughout the maelstrom of World War II, he remained in power, a distant and, to most outsiders, inscrutable factor in the rise of the Japanese Empire.Before and during the war, many people in America and elsewhere believed that Emperor Hirohito was at least partly responsible for both the confrontational Japanese approach to foreign affairs, and for the often brutal conduct of the Japa