Hirohito

propaganda promoting the view that the Emperor together with the Japanese people had been fooled by the military. For the rest of his life Emperor Hirohito was an active figure in Japanese life and performed many of the duties commonly associated with a constitutional head of state. General Tojo intercepted the order on June 30 and delayed its sending but it was issued anyway the next day.

The word Shōwa is the name of the era that corresponded with the Emperor's reign and was made the Emperor's own name upon his death. During the postwar period he became the symbol of the new state and Japan's recovery and by the end of his reign Japan had emerged as the world's second largest economy.