Hirohito
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Hirohito
Hirohito (hērōˈhētō), 1901–89, emperor of Japan. He was made regent in 1921 and succeeded his father, Yoshihito (the Taishō emperor), in 1926. He married (1924) Princess Nagako Kuni (1903–2000); a son and heir, Prince Akihito, was born in 1933. For 20 years he reigned as sovereign as Japan went to war in China and the Pacific, and in 1945 he made an unprecedented radio broadcast announcing Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allies. Under Allied occupation, he retained the throne, but was transformed from imperial sovereign to democratic symbol. The constitution of 1946 made him “symbol of the state and of the unity of the people,” and he became familiar as a marine biologist, family figure, and greeter of foreign heads of state. His Showa (“enlightened peace”) reign was the longest and one of the most turbulent in Japan's history.
Bibliography
See D. Irokawa, The Age of Hirohito (1995); H. P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (2000).
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Hirohito
Born Apr. 29, 1901, in Tokyo. Japanese emperor.
Hirohito was named prince regent in 1921 as a result of the illness of his father, Emperor Yoshihito. He ascended the throne after his father’s death in December 1926.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hirohito
1901--89, emperor of Japan 1926--89. In 1946 he became a constitutional monarch
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005