What if, for any reason you want, the Western Allies decided that they were not going to let the Japanese keep their emperor. Perhaps the depth of his involvement was exposed, maybe Downfall actually took place, the casualties were so horrendous that the victors were in such a pissed off state that they weren't prepared to cut the vanquished any slack at all. So the emperor gets to stretch a rope along with Tojo, et al. The purpose of this thread is not to discuss how the world got to this moment, but to talk about how the Japanese people would react during the period leading up to the hanging, the day of, and the immediate aftermath. [Restrain yourselves, o ye ASBers!] This assumes that Macarthur is still the acting shogun. If you want to involve the Russians in the occupation of Japan, that is OK, but the thread should deal only with the execution, and its reaction.