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abhatia · Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 37

What does the language of the rescript reveal about Japan's decision to cease fighting?

shawks · Joined: 14 Feb 2012 Posts: 13

The Emperor, as shown by his writing, clearly believes that Japan should stop fighting. He talks about the prosperity of all nations and how not giving up would destroy Japan and the world around it.
At times, though, Hirohito sounds like he's trying to justify what Japan has done. He claims that other East Asian countries have cooperated with Japan when in reality they had no choice. Japan's weapons were much more modern than the rest of Asia, and the women from Nanjing were definitely unwilling to be raped. Also, when he's referring to the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb, he calls it "the enemy". Obviously, he wants peace, but he still doesn't Japan was completely wrong in what it did during and before World War 2.

mkim2013 · Joined: 14 Feb 2012 Posts: 9

As Sam mentioned, the Emperor also agrees on stopping the war saying that it would not only damage Japan but the whole world. However, the way he had written the letter as if Japan was the victim of the war. He says, "We cannot but express the deepest sense of regret to our allied nations of East Asia, who have consistently cooperated with the Empire toward the emancipation of East Asia". He also includes that he is ending the war forsake of Japan's future generations "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." Overall, despite their defeat, the Emperor did not show any sign of remorse or guilt in the letter

lizzieyang · Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 14

Hirohito did not want to admit the wrongdoings of Japan, which caused so much damage to Japanese civilians. Therefore, in his letter, he made himself and his country the greatest victim of the war. Not a simple victim, but a poor victim, that tried its best to save the East Asia as a whole. No explanation must be necessary to rebut such idea because of the China Incident, Nanjing Incident and various traces of Japanese in Korea, Indonesia, and Philippines that we know of. His statement, "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage," sounds like merely trying to escape the guilt of lying for the past years about Japan's success in war.

rpulak2012 · Joined: 03 Dec 2011 Posts: 9

Before the surrender, the Japanese government had been portraying Americans as savages who would rape and kill civilians if they ever won the war (I wonder where they got that idea?) (this is from other research, such as the movie The Longest Day, which I would recommend to everyone in the class) Much of this speech was to clarify that the US would NOT be harming civilians any further after the agreement to the demands of the Western powers. A lot of what had happened previously was justified insofar as that it was part of the war, however, the war was over and now any act of aggression towards the US was not acceptable.

wlotas2013 · Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 20

The Japanese agreement to surrender is supposedly to save the rest of the world due to the US' use of nuclear weaponry. The implication was that the US would continue to use such a tool at the expense of the rest of the globe. They claim their motivation for war was "self preservation", dismissing any prospects of territorial gain. They emphasize their attempts to create prosperity and even apologize to the rest of Asia for their "failure" to liberate. Japan's surrender only offered a flawed perspective of their war efforts.

squashie · Joined: 07 Sep 2011 Posts: 22

I agree with Lizzie in that the Emperor didn't want to admit the wrong doings of Japan and was instead a bit embarrassed by their actions. Though he expressed their "deepest sense of regret" to the allies, the Emperor wasn't as sincere as he could've been. It seemed that he wanted a fresh start for Japan and the only way that could've been done was to end the war.

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