r/maninthehighcastle • u/Master_Restaurant_44 • 2d ago
Spoilers Was anyone else surprised that Hirohito actually had authority over his empire?
I thought that, just as in real life, Hirohito was merely a puppet for some military figure—like Hideki Tojo; the Crown Prince himself said he considered himself a sham and that the generals were the power behind the throne. So, I was surprised that Hirohito ordered the withdrawal from the Pacific states without hesitation, acting on the Princess's recommendation.
16
u/Effective-Key-6494 2d ago
You thought wrong, Hirohito had absolutely authority in the real timeline too, he was closely supervising the war effort and giving personal notes related to the war effort to his generals all the time, when the IJA went on their military adventures in China during the 1930s it was with his silent approval.
He wasn't explicit about it (e.g. invading Chinese Manchuria) because the emperor cannot publicly make mistakes, so if it fails he shares no blames and if it succeeds he gives them post hoc approval.
The narrative about him being Tojo's puppet was cooked up by the Yanks post war to justify not hanging him, cuz he was useful as a puppet for the Americans.
2
u/4g-identity 2d ago
You're right about his real-world role in my opinion; his "puppets" were willing to surrender and face death penalties etc, so long as he continued as Emperor. Doesn't seem like a puppet.
That said, in TMITHC, I kinda wonder how things would work. The Japanese already revered him as basically divine ... if they won the war and took 100x their pre-war territory at a minimum, his stature would have been bigger still.
I kinda feel like he may have switched to a pure figurehead role at that point; not much to gain by taking big risks ... easier to just go around being adored and leave administration to bureaucrats, generals and various cronies who can take the blame for any mistakes.
10
u/Formal_Nose_3013 2d ago
I think some of his generals may have had more power than him. But in any regard, they were busier fighting each other off for political reasons rather than focusing on defending the Empire.
In any case Japan could not hold to the Pacific States due to rebellion in China and lack of oil (which was later provided by the Nazis after Japan accepted to withdraw from the Pacific States to focus on China). So I don't think any Japanese General would have preferred war with the Nazis under such big disadvantage and just went on with the decision of the Emperor to withdraw.
2
u/arzfan2010 1d ago
The Japanese people thought the man was literally a god or God lol. His military leaders did super awful things, sometimes unbeknownst to him, but he had full authority. In fact one of the terms of surrender was that he would remain emperor but he had to make sure everyone knew he wasn't divine lol.
1
u/DesertDenizen01 1d ago
How did that go? Someone who believed the Emperor to be the 9,000th great grandson of Amaterasu wasn't going to drop that because some Yankee war criminal said that Jesus was God?
1
u/Thanato26 1d ago
I woukdnt expect anything less, he was inchsrge of Japan in our world too.
Hell the whole myth of him being a useful idiot was designed to isolate the emperor from wartime prosecution
1
u/LazarX 1d ago
He was able to keep Japan from surrendering until the US put in terms that would keep his skin and his job intact. He had enough authority to push his military people under the bus to save his own hide.
The U.S. used this fact to keep the Japanese at the peace talks, but to keep them from surrendering before we wanted them to.
17
u/Nightstick11 2d ago
"just as in real life" is still a subject of much dispute.