The Emperor After Empire: Hirohito, Cold War Statecraft, and Imperial House Diplomacy, 1945 -1975

This talk looks at Emperor Hirohito’s political afterlife following Japan’s defeat in 1945, tracing how the wartime sovereign, whose future was deeply uncertain, transformed into an influential, if discreet, actor in Japan’s postwar order. Drawing on recently released Japanese records, diaries, multilingual and multi-archival diplomatic documents, along with Imperial Household archives, this talk explores Hirohito’s involvement in Japan’s Cold War alignment with the United States, his anti-communist politics, as well as the informal channels through which he sought to shape the country’s geopolitical direction. The talk follows this story through to the 1970s, when the throne, which was once associated with imperial warfare and violent colonial rule, was redeployed as an instrument of alliance management, culminating in Hirohito’s 1975 visit to the United States.

Reischauer Institute Japan Forum