Crown Prince Hirohito, 1919
by Science Source
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Crown Prince Hirohito, 1919
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Science Source
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Photograph - Photograph
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Hirohito/Emperor Sh?wa (April 29, 1901 - January 7, 1989), was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. At the start of his reign, Japan was already one of the great powers, and one of the four permanent members of the council of the League of Nations. He was the head of state under the limitation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan during Japan's imperial expansion and militarization. His army invaded Manchuria in 1931 and parts of China in 1937 (the Second Sino-Japanese War). He personally ratified the Japanese Army's proposal to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. Thus he was entirely responsible for the Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against Nanking. Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army. Widespread rape and looting also occurred. Several of the key perpetrators of the atrocities were later tried and found guilty at the International Military Tribunal of the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal, and were executed. In 1940, under Hirohito's leadership, Japan formed Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, forming the Axis Powers. After the war, he was not prosecuted for war crimes as many other leading government figures were, despite his involvement. During the postwar period, he became the symbol of the new state and Japan's recovery, and by the end of his reign, Japan had emerged as the world's second largest economy. He died in 1989 of cancer at the age of 87.
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April 18th, 2016
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