Challenge: Hirohito Hanged?

As I investigated several things for my Operation Nevsky thread (do you know how difficult it is to find who the heck was the Japanese Ambassador to the United States in 1940??), I saw that all of the Japanese Imperial Family was totally exonerated by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East of the crimes committed during the war in Asia. I wonder, what would it take for them to be trialed and perhaps sentenced to death.

So, there's the challenge: with a POD set between July 7th 1937 (the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War) and August 8th 1945 (the nuclear bomb on Nagasaki), have the Japanese Imperial Family held accountable for the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy's crimes against peace (Class A), war crimes (Class B) and crimes against humanity (Class C).
 
First, you should have communism in Asia being an epic failure: without commies in either Korea or Manchuria, the americans have less interest in having Japan as a bulwark against communism and execute a more torough depuration of the country.

Second, someone other than MacArthur should be in command of US forces in Japan.
 
Yeah; if the Americans hang the Emperor, all of Japan rises up in rebellion at the same time. End result: Japan is a nice, glassy wilderness.
 
Yeah; if the Americans hang the Emperor, all of Japan rises up in rebellion at the same time. End result: Japan is a nice, glassy wilderness.

I dunno, actually. If you go through the Court's documents at the tme, as well as letters, etc. there was a real concern for the decline of kotukai (basically, respect for the empereror's divine office). In short, the firebombings were worryingly provoking unrest and perhaps criticism.

So I wonder if you could get him killed by the people?
 
well, as I recall the Japanese had plans for launching some one way bombing runs on the continental US with chemical or biological weapons, perhaps one of these attacks actually takes place and succeeds. That would piss off enough of the american public that not trying the Emperor in court is political suicide for the White House, so as a political necessity the emperor is tried for war crimes. Either this or actually have the Japanese invade Hawaii, the revelation of the IJA's atrocities against civilians would definetly rile up the American populace.
 
well, as I recall the Japanese had plans for launching some one way bombing runs on the continental US with chemical or biological weapons, perhaps one of these attacks actually takes place and succeeds. That would piss off enough of the american public that not trying the Emperor in court is political suicide for the White House, so as a political necessity the emperor is tried for war crimes. Either this or actually have the Japanese invade Hawaii, the revelation of the IJA's atrocities against civilians would definetly rile up the American populace.

The Japanese were never able to invade Hawaii, they would have been chewed up and spit out if they tried. http://www.combinedfleet.com/pearlops.htm
 
Actually, it'd be ridiculously easy AT THE TIME to hang Hiroshito. The problem would arise later, when nationalism makes its inevitable comeback-- but free of the taint of unfinished business that Hiroshito's survival brought about in Asian politics. But at the time, the majority of the Japanese people actually thought he'd be at least tried and probably hanged. There's this very informative monograph on this subject from Harvard that I can't remember its name right now. But the author compiles various Japanese archival research and shows that it was precisely the fact that he was not hanged, which made the Japanese people bitter and allowed the survival of much of the old Japan to today. The people at the time thought that Tokyo trials were a victor's trial, without legitimacy, where only the small fries hanged while big fish (like the emperor) escaped. The problem was that the US government bought too much into that garbage book, "The Sword and Crysantheum," which gave way too much informal power to the emperor and misled the US into supporting the institution. The Japanese people at the time were ready for a clean break with the past, and outside of small number of discredited hardliners, very few Japanese would've shed any tears for Hiroshito. Now, it's my opinion that hanging him would've been bad, for that would've made him a martyr and a rallying cry for the post-war generation's Japanese nationalists, but that's neither here nor there.
 

Xen

Banned
Hanging is hard what about forcing him to abdicate, and establishing the Republic of Japan (which happens in a tl I am working on). The Emperor is forced to bear the blame for the war and is exiled to a monastary with his family to spend the rest of his days, or even imprisoned, while his family lives a life of poverty in exile on a little, sparsely populated island retained by Japan
 
Although improbable we could see it changed by a change in the conference that determined who would run Japan; if the soviets could obtain control of Japan or at least part of the home islands then it's likely they would hang Hirohito.
 
Although improbable we could see it changed by a change in the conference that determined who would run Japan; if the soviets could obtain control of Japan or at least part of the home islands then it's likely they would hang Hirohito.

One could, in theory, hang Hirohito and enthrone Akihito, who, as a 12 year old would be free of war crimes by anyone's definition.
 
Sure, the Americans could have executed Hirohito, but for what gain? There would have been no rebellion, no revolution; only more anxiety against the conquerors. No more spread of communism either. Maybe it was no need to be the dictators our ancestors fought so hard to depose, or maybe because OTL took less effort to rebuild defeated territory to life as usual. We dropped the bomb. Show a face-oriented society some mercy and just maybe they might rebuild and help you propagate some technology.
 
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