Hirohito

Profile

Emperor Shōwa was Emperor of Japan from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. He previously reigned as Sesshō ('regent') for his father, Emperor Taishō, during a period of prolonged illness. Hirohito reigned through a surge in Japanese militarism leading up to Japan's involvement in World War II as an Axis power. As head of state of the Empire of Japan, he announced the surrender of Japan to the Allied powers in August 1945 and formally signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in September 1945. Under pressure from the Allies, he issued the Humanity Declaration in January 1946, denouncing the belief in the divinity of the emperor as a direct descendant of Amaterasu, the chief deity in Shintoism. The Constitution of Japan, adopted in November 1946, states the Emperor to be "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people", thus a constitutional monarch rather than a sovereign emperor. After the war, he reigned over a period of unprecedented economic growth known as the Japanese economic miracle. Hirohito reigned for 62 years and 13 days, the longest reign in Japanese history and the 12th-longest verifiable reign in world history.

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