DBWI: Hirohito Not Executed For War Crimes

What if the Showa Emperor were not tried and executed for war crimes at the conclusion of the Second World War?

Could the US simply exile him? Or perhaps even retain the dynasty in some form (perhaps ASB since about 97 percent of Americans wanted Hirohito executed or exiled or imprisoned, but I think its possible even if a stretch and would be a compromise that'd give way more stability than there was in the end)?

Likewise, what effect would the alternatives have on the military resistance that followed and the occupation force which had to fight that over the course of something like a decade or so?
 
Executing Hirohito was a stupid thing to do, IMO. He had always been a figurehead, except at the very end of the war when he finally forced through a Japanese acceptance of surrender. It was a savage war, but keeping on Hirohito in some capacity as a "constitutional" monarch may have led to a true peace rather than the suicide bombings and Communist infiltrations the US had to struggle against.
 

Germaniac

Donor
Well for one we would not have seen the huge increase in Suicide bombings and our eventual complete withdrawal from Japan in the Early 60's when the communists took over.
 
While Japan was certainly divided, consider that the execution actually helped in securing American support from most of the nations of the Pacific Rim who suffered under Japanese rule for 12 years. The Coalition government between the Kuomingtang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1951, wouldn't have been possible without the leverage provided by General Joseph Stillwell provided to the Six-Power Talks. Second, the Korean government was all to glad to be rid of Emperor Hirohito, giving American forces an edge against Communist guerillas in 1949. Even Ho Chi Minh, Indochina's first democratically elected president openly praised the execution as the "end of a long era of terror"....
 

Bearcat

Banned
Hirohito was a war cruiminal

Executing Hirohito was a stupid thing to do, IMO. He had always been a figurehead, except at the very end of the war when he finally forced through a Japanese acceptance of surrender.

Not true. Hirohito personally approved each use of biological weapons in the war with China, as well as their use against the US at Saipan, which is when any hope he had of not being executed ended.

OOC: Approval before use in China in OTL is true and verified; use on Saipan was considered but weapons were sent by sub and sunk before reaching the theatre.
 
Top