Hirohito Interview
I went and talked to Hirohito, the emperor when the World War II had been going on. Yes, I traveled back in time and asked him these questions and he did have time on his hands to answer them.
When I asked Hirohito about when he was born, he said April 29, 1901. When I asked him what number emperor of Japan he was, he said I was the 124th emperor. When I asked him how long he took Japan’s throne for, he said for sixty-three years, and I was the longest living ruler in modern history. When I asked him what emperor he ruled, he replied Taisho emperor. When I asked him who ruled Meiji emperor, he said the grandson of Mutsuhito. When I asked him how busy he was, he said that even if I’d return to the palace where my parents’ official residence is, I was only allowed to see my mother once a week and I hardly ever spent time with his father. When I asked him about his education, he said, I was a shy and serious young boy who went to Gakushuin Peers School in a special class of twelve boys. My teacher was actually a soldier of the Russo-Japanese War and I took a personal interest in the education of the young prince and I made myself learn and respect the virtues of hard work, to understand the importance of devotion to the nation, and the practice of stoicism. When I asked him when he took throne, he said, I took the throne on December 25th, 1926.
When I asked Hirohito what events happened prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he said that he felt uneasy about the events particularly after 1940; he didn’t favor the alliance with Germany and Italy in World War II, but he said that he made no effort to oppose it. Similar to the distrustful judgments of the military leaders, he said, kept assuring him of a quick end to the war in China. But when the final decision on war with the United States, he barley opposed it on September 6, 1941. When I asked Hirohito about why he and his people decided to bomb Pearl Harbor, he said it was because of the American naval blockade of Japan’s shipping, which created major shortages of food, oil and other supply, so we decided to bomb their naval fleet ships. When I asked him about what role Japan had throughout World War II, he said that we just had a crucial problem with the Americans, we bombed them first, they declared war, they won by us finally deciding to surrender forcefully by them bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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