| Amaterasu; Sun goddess and mother of the Empire of Japan. |
| His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Jimmu First Emperor of the Empire of Japan |
| His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Mutsuhito One-hundred and twenty-second Emperor of the Empire of Japan. |
| Meiji Tennou |
| His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Yoshihito One-hundred and twenty-third Emperor of the Empire of Japan. |
| Taisho Tennou |
| His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Hirohito One-hundred and twenty-fourth Emperor of the Empire of Japan |
| Showa Tennou |
| His Majesty on His official mount, Shirayuki |
| Showa Emperor c.1980s |
Dai Nippon Teikoku Rikugun Daisan Shoutai
Imperial Japanese Army Third Platoon
Tennou/The Emperor
The Emperor of Japan: leader, symbol, a son of a god, and a nation
embodied. According to the founding myths of Japan, the Imperial
Family descends from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Ohmikami through
her grandson Ninigi no Mikoto, a divine being who descended from
Takama no Hara, the High Plain of Heaven, to found the Japanese
State. Since the Emperor Jimmu ascended the throne, the Imperial
Family of Japan has reigned over country in constant turmoil and
development. As living descendants of the divine, they enjoyed godlike
status until the Showa Emperor renounced his divinity after World War II.
The reign of Emperor Jimmu and the official formation of the Japanese
state is considered the beginning of the Japanese lunar calendar.
Imperial chronology according to this system derives from the various
records of Imperial succession, among which Kojiki (Records of Ancient
Matters) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) are considered the
most authoritative. While modern historians at times dispute the
accuracy of these works, 660 BC is traditionally considered the first year
of the Jimmu era.
The Japanese Imperial Family is the world’s oldest continuous ruling
dynasty, and has enjoyed an unbroken line of succession since
Emperor Jimmu’s time. Since then, the authority commanded by the
Emperor has waxed and waned with the tides of history, but the Imperial
Family has remained the nation’s spiritual guide and caretaker. Emperor
Jimmu’s descendants saw the nation transform from an amalgam of
hunter-gatherers and mound tomb builders, into an East Asian cultural
melting pot, an advanced feudal civilization conducting trade with
Western powers, and eventually an isolated nation wracked by civil war.
With the arrival of US Commodore Matthew Perry and his famous Black
Ships in 2512, Japan began its transformation into a modern industrial
power. The Tokugawa Shogunate, which for three centuries controlled
military and civil affairs in Japan’s feudal provinces, proved unable to
adequately meet the challenge of open trade with the West. The
Emperor at the time, posthumously known as Emperor Komei, retained
only symbolic power at his court in Kyoto. As the Shogunate, rent with
internal disputes, gradually surrendered sovereignty to foreign powers
under threat of military force, Emperor Komei began to assert himself
and regain many of the powers his ancestors consigned to the
Tokugawa clan at the close of the Sengoku (warring states) period.
In 2522 he ordered all foreigners expelled from the country, but the
Western powers with trading interests in Japan retaliated viciously,
destroying Japanese warships, coastal guns, and assorted military
infrastructure throughout the country. By the death of Emperor Komei in
2527, the government faced bankruptcy and utter collapse, while all
around colonial powers with substantial investments in Japanese trade
stood poised to gain considerable influence. Japan faced a crisis which
would determine whether it continued autonomously, or become a
puppet of the West to be carved up and exploited.
Emperor Meiji, whose personal name was Mutsuhito, ascended the
throne in 2527 at age 16 and reigned until his death in 2572. As the
122nd Emperor of Japan, he inherited a country on the verge of
collapse. Aided by concerned samurai clans from the Satsuma and
Choshu, the Emperor forced the resignation of the Tokugawa
Shogunate in 2528 and moved the Imperial Capital to Edo, which was
later renamed Tokyo.
While learning about the state of his nation and the world, Emperor Meiji
became determined to create a modern independent and prosperous
Japan, with a powerful military to protect its interests. Western
exploitation of other East Asian nations, including Japan’s long-time
cultural mentor, China, convinced the Emperor and his ministers that a
strict doctrine of modernization and the raising of a powerful military
were the only means of securing respect for Japan abroad and
maintaining domestic control of a rapidly growing nation.
Importing the latest in Western fashion, science, thought, and military
experience, Japan began a campaign to purge itself of the ineffectual,
isolationist ways, and in roughly thirty years a modern diamond
emerged from feudal coal. In typical Japanese fashion, the Emperor and
his people transformed the best foreign ideas into things Japanese, or
as the saying of the period went, "Western machine, Eastern thought."
Japan transformed from an agrarian, feudal nation into a modern
military power in a fraction of the time as compared to the other world
powers' developmental time line. This development was not without its
social problems, but remains a miracle of civilization not often mentioned
in Western history textbooks.
Japan's victory over the Imperial Chinese Army in the first Sino-
Japanese War (2554-2555) gained the Japanese Empire new territories
throughout Asia, most notably Formosa (Taiwan). This major victory
earned the nation worldwide recognition as a military power. However,
the defeat of Imperial Russia in East Asia (2564-2565) was the real
turning point. The Western world staggered in the wake of the defeat of
the greatest naval and ground forces of the time at the hands of a
people considered racially inferior by many Westerners. This victory
garnered the Japanese Empire even more territory and began the
sequence of events that led to the formal annexation of Korea in 2570.
The Emperor’s passing in 2572 evoked great displays of national
mourning. Among the most famous was the ritual suicide of General
Nogi Maresuke, a hero of both the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese
wars. When the Emperor’s funeral cortege departed the Imperial
Palace, General Nogi followed his lord in death by committing seppuku,
or ritual suicide. The General’s wife followed suit, performing the female
ritual of jigai. Even today, the Meiji Emperor is greatly beloved by the
Japanese people. His spirit and the spirit of his Empress, Shoken, are
enshrined at Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu.
The Meiji Emperor was succeeded by his son Yoshihito, whose regnal
name was Taisho. While Emperor Taisho reigned from 2572 to 2586,
the period of his reign has been nicknamed the "Taisho Democracy"
due to the domination of affairs by the national legislature and cabinet.
Due to his suffering from meningitis at a young age, the Taisho Emperor
remained mentally and physically frail throughout his reign and was
considered weak and ineffectual. His condition deteriorated as he aged
and he was kept from public view toward the end of his reign.
As the Emperor was less influential during this period, much of the
power was shifted toward the diet, or legislature. Despite several
political crises during the early years of the era, Japan embraced a
period of relative domestic calm. The nation enjoyed universal male
suffrage, younger generations became increasingly interested in more
liberal systems of government, and more foreign influences were being
absorbed into the Japanese culture.
This period also witnessed the First World War, in which Japan declared
war on Germany as a member of the Allied Powers. Japan even
participated in the Allied Siberian expedition to stop the Bolshevik
revolution in Russia, contributing 75,000 troops. Japan planned to take
much of Siberia during this action, but dropped the plans so as not to
aggravate the Western powers. As a result, Japan obtained Germany's
possessions in China and the South-Pacific. Though considered of
minor assistance in obtaining victory during World War I, Japan invested
significantly in the future of the Empire. After the war Japan was
considered a member of the "Big 5" world powers and served as a
founding member of the League of Nations.
However, growing distress and racist sentiment on the part of Western
nations led to a general unwillingness to treat equally with the Empire.
Japan campaigned heavily for the inclusion of a racial equality clause in
post-war peace treaties and in the founding charter of the League of
Nations, but in the end failed to secure this due to overwhelming racial
prejudice. The feelings of enmity sown by the Paris Peace Talks
outraged the nation at home and contributed to the rising tide of
nationalism and militarism that predominated at the end of the Taisho
era.
After the his father Emperor Taisho's death in December 1926, the
Emperor Showa (whose personal name was Hirohito) ascended the
Imperial Throne. This would begin the longest consecutive of any
Japanese Emperor to date.
Emperor Showa's reign is pockmarked with significant events that rival
the resume of any monarch of world history. His early reign saw more
power shift within the diet from civilian to military control, no doubt a
result of counter-xenophobia from the Post-WWI era. His Majesty
quelled the Koudouha Faction's military coup-d'etat, known as the
February incident. Several civilian and military moderates were
assassinated during this brief but severe incident.
Even after the February Incident, little was done to prevent militarists
from dictating much of Japan's foreign and domestic policy. Inevitably
as the nation's needs grew, so did the imperial desires of the militarists
and their solutions for many of Japan's problems led to the Second Sino-
Japanese War and the Second World War.
While Japan waged war in China, Emperor Showa's concerns regarding
conflict with the Soviet Union grew. In 1939 the Soviet threat became
real and a border conflict broke out at Nomonhan. Japanese forces
were defeated on the ground by superior numbers of Soviet forces, and
a settlement was reached. After the incident, a non-aggression treaty
was signed by Japan and the Soviet Union.
During this same period Japan was approached by Germany and Italy to
join the Tripartite Anti-communist Axis. Emperor Showa, who was an
Anglophile and had deep respect for the United Kingdom, respectively
resisted joining the Axis. However, after much pressure from his brother
and cabinet ministers as well as witnessing the early successes of the
German military in Europe the Showa Emperor agreed and the Axis was
formed.
The Western powers shunned Japan's membership in the Axis, and
further condemned Japanese military action in East Asia. Military issues
now took the place of the domestic in the Imperial cabinet, and
Japanese military advisors began conjuring the conquest of strategic
locations in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in order to secure
badly needed resources for nation to survive and to fuel the war
machine in China.
Shocked by the apparent shift in policy making, Emperor Showa
approached his war ministers and challenged them to take a diplomatic
route to solving Japan's problems. The Emperor was very aware that
war with the West would not be in Japan's best interests, especially
since the War in China was proving more difficult than what the military
hoped for. The now famous plans for the blitz of late 1941/42 were
created, submitted to and eventually approved by the Emperor as the
only means to support Japan's rapid expansion and material needs.
The apparent conflict with the West was unavoidable, so a quick
decisive victory over Western presence in Asia and the South Pacific
was needed to obtain favorable terms at peace negotiations. The US
and UK eventually recovered from their defeats at the hands of the
Japanese, and peace was not formerly made until the signing of The
Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Ten-thousand years to his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of
Japan!!!
embodied. According to the founding myths of Japan, the Imperial
Family descends from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Ohmikami through
her grandson Ninigi no Mikoto, a divine being who descended from
Takama no Hara, the High Plain of Heaven, to found the Japanese
State. Since the Emperor Jimmu ascended the throne, the Imperial
Family of Japan has reigned over country in constant turmoil and
development. As living descendants of the divine, they enjoyed godlike
status until the Showa Emperor renounced his divinity after World War II.
The reign of Emperor Jimmu and the official formation of the Japanese
state is considered the beginning of the Japanese lunar calendar.
Imperial chronology according to this system derives from the various
records of Imperial succession, among which Kojiki (Records of Ancient
Matters) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) are considered the
most authoritative. While modern historians at times dispute the
accuracy of these works, 660 BC is traditionally considered the first year
of the Jimmu era.
The Japanese Imperial Family is the world’s oldest continuous ruling
dynasty, and has enjoyed an unbroken line of succession since
Emperor Jimmu’s time. Since then, the authority commanded by the
Emperor has waxed and waned with the tides of history, but the Imperial
Family has remained the nation’s spiritual guide and caretaker. Emperor
Jimmu’s descendants saw the nation transform from an amalgam of
hunter-gatherers and mound tomb builders, into an East Asian cultural
melting pot, an advanced feudal civilization conducting trade with
Western powers, and eventually an isolated nation wracked by civil war.
With the arrival of US Commodore Matthew Perry and his famous Black
Ships in 2512, Japan began its transformation into a modern industrial
power. The Tokugawa Shogunate, which for three centuries controlled
military and civil affairs in Japan’s feudal provinces, proved unable to
adequately meet the challenge of open trade with the West. The
Emperor at the time, posthumously known as Emperor Komei, retained
only symbolic power at his court in Kyoto. As the Shogunate, rent with
internal disputes, gradually surrendered sovereignty to foreign powers
under threat of military force, Emperor Komei began to assert himself
and regain many of the powers his ancestors consigned to the
Tokugawa clan at the close of the Sengoku (warring states) period.
In 2522 he ordered all foreigners expelled from the country, but the
Western powers with trading interests in Japan retaliated viciously,
destroying Japanese warships, coastal guns, and assorted military
infrastructure throughout the country. By the death of Emperor Komei in
2527, the government faced bankruptcy and utter collapse, while all
around colonial powers with substantial investments in Japanese trade
stood poised to gain considerable influence. Japan faced a crisis which
would determine whether it continued autonomously, or become a
puppet of the West to be carved up and exploited.
Emperor Meiji, whose personal name was Mutsuhito, ascended the
throne in 2527 at age 16 and reigned until his death in 2572. As the
122nd Emperor of Japan, he inherited a country on the verge of
collapse. Aided by concerned samurai clans from the Satsuma and
Choshu, the Emperor forced the resignation of the Tokugawa
Shogunate in 2528 and moved the Imperial Capital to Edo, which was
later renamed Tokyo.
While learning about the state of his nation and the world, Emperor Meiji
became determined to create a modern independent and prosperous
Japan, with a powerful military to protect its interests. Western
exploitation of other East Asian nations, including Japan’s long-time
cultural mentor, China, convinced the Emperor and his ministers that a
strict doctrine of modernization and the raising of a powerful military
were the only means of securing respect for Japan abroad and
maintaining domestic control of a rapidly growing nation.
Importing the latest in Western fashion, science, thought, and military
experience, Japan began a campaign to purge itself of the ineffectual,
isolationist ways, and in roughly thirty years a modern diamond
emerged from feudal coal. In typical Japanese fashion, the Emperor and
his people transformed the best foreign ideas into things Japanese, or
as the saying of the period went, "Western machine, Eastern thought."
Japan transformed from an agrarian, feudal nation into a modern
military power in a fraction of the time as compared to the other world
powers' developmental time line. This development was not without its
social problems, but remains a miracle of civilization not often mentioned
in Western history textbooks.
Japan's victory over the Imperial Chinese Army in the first Sino-
Japanese War (2554-2555) gained the Japanese Empire new territories
throughout Asia, most notably Formosa (Taiwan). This major victory
earned the nation worldwide recognition as a military power. However,
the defeat of Imperial Russia in East Asia (2564-2565) was the real
turning point. The Western world staggered in the wake of the defeat of
the greatest naval and ground forces of the time at the hands of a
people considered racially inferior by many Westerners. This victory
garnered the Japanese Empire even more territory and began the
sequence of events that led to the formal annexation of Korea in 2570.
The Emperor’s passing in 2572 evoked great displays of national
mourning. Among the most famous was the ritual suicide of General
Nogi Maresuke, a hero of both the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese
wars. When the Emperor’s funeral cortege departed the Imperial
Palace, General Nogi followed his lord in death by committing seppuku,
or ritual suicide. The General’s wife followed suit, performing the female
ritual of jigai. Even today, the Meiji Emperor is greatly beloved by the
Japanese people. His spirit and the spirit of his Empress, Shoken, are
enshrined at Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu.
The Meiji Emperor was succeeded by his son Yoshihito, whose regnal
name was Taisho. While Emperor Taisho reigned from 2572 to 2586,
the period of his reign has been nicknamed the "Taisho Democracy"
due to the domination of affairs by the national legislature and cabinet.
Due to his suffering from meningitis at a young age, the Taisho Emperor
remained mentally and physically frail throughout his reign and was
considered weak and ineffectual. His condition deteriorated as he aged
and he was kept from public view toward the end of his reign.
As the Emperor was less influential during this period, much of the
power was shifted toward the diet, or legislature. Despite several
political crises during the early years of the era, Japan embraced a
period of relative domestic calm. The nation enjoyed universal male
suffrage, younger generations became increasingly interested in more
liberal systems of government, and more foreign influences were being
absorbed into the Japanese culture.
This period also witnessed the First World War, in which Japan declared
war on Germany as a member of the Allied Powers. Japan even
participated in the Allied Siberian expedition to stop the Bolshevik
revolution in Russia, contributing 75,000 troops. Japan planned to take
much of Siberia during this action, but dropped the plans so as not to
aggravate the Western powers. As a result, Japan obtained Germany's
possessions in China and the South-Pacific. Though considered of
minor assistance in obtaining victory during World War I, Japan invested
significantly in the future of the Empire. After the war Japan was
considered a member of the "Big 5" world powers and served as a
founding member of the League of Nations.
However, growing distress and racist sentiment on the part of Western
nations led to a general unwillingness to treat equally with the Empire.
Japan campaigned heavily for the inclusion of a racial equality clause in
post-war peace treaties and in the founding charter of the League of
Nations, but in the end failed to secure this due to overwhelming racial
prejudice. The feelings of enmity sown by the Paris Peace Talks
outraged the nation at home and contributed to the rising tide of
nationalism and militarism that predominated at the end of the Taisho
era.
After the his father Emperor Taisho's death in December 1926, the
Emperor Showa (whose personal name was Hirohito) ascended the
Imperial Throne. This would begin the longest consecutive of any
Japanese Emperor to date.
Emperor Showa's reign is pockmarked with significant events that rival
the resume of any monarch of world history. His early reign saw more
power shift within the diet from civilian to military control, no doubt a
result of counter-xenophobia from the Post-WWI era. His Majesty
quelled the Koudouha Faction's military coup-d'etat, known as the
February incident. Several civilian and military moderates were
assassinated during this brief but severe incident.
Even after the February Incident, little was done to prevent militarists
from dictating much of Japan's foreign and domestic policy. Inevitably
as the nation's needs grew, so did the imperial desires of the militarists
and their solutions for many of Japan's problems led to the Second Sino-
Japanese War and the Second World War.
While Japan waged war in China, Emperor Showa's concerns regarding
conflict with the Soviet Union grew. In 1939 the Soviet threat became
real and a border conflict broke out at Nomonhan. Japanese forces
were defeated on the ground by superior numbers of Soviet forces, and
a settlement was reached. After the incident, a non-aggression treaty
was signed by Japan and the Soviet Union.
During this same period Japan was approached by Germany and Italy to
join the Tripartite Anti-communist Axis. Emperor Showa, who was an
Anglophile and had deep respect for the United Kingdom, respectively
resisted joining the Axis. However, after much pressure from his brother
and cabinet ministers as well as witnessing the early successes of the
German military in Europe the Showa Emperor agreed and the Axis was
formed.
The Western powers shunned Japan's membership in the Axis, and
further condemned Japanese military action in East Asia. Military issues
now took the place of the domestic in the Imperial cabinet, and
Japanese military advisors began conjuring the conquest of strategic
locations in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in order to secure
badly needed resources for nation to survive and to fuel the war
machine in China.
Shocked by the apparent shift in policy making, Emperor Showa
approached his war ministers and challenged them to take a diplomatic
route to solving Japan's problems. The Emperor was very aware that
war with the West would not be in Japan's best interests, especially
since the War in China was proving more difficult than what the military
hoped for. The now famous plans for the blitz of late 1941/42 were
created, submitted to and eventually approved by the Emperor as the
only means to support Japan's rapid expansion and material needs.
The apparent conflict with the West was unavoidable, so a quick
decisive victory over Western presence in Asia and the South Pacific
was needed to obtain favorable terms at peace negotiations. The US
and UK eventually recovered from their defeats at the hands of the
Japanese, and peace was not formerly made until the signing of The
Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Ten-thousand years to his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of
Japan!!!
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