- Most of his own subjects had never seen his face or heard his voice until after the war. Hirohito would be the first Japanese emperor to broadcast on the radio, announcng the Japanese surrender.
- Hirohito led Japan into World War 2. However, he was the only one of the three major Axis leaders to remain in power (not to mention alive) after the war.
- Hirohito was one in a dynasty that may have existed since the 600s BC, making it one of the longest unbroken royal lines of succession in history.
- His brother Prince Takahito Mikasa, born in Tokyo on 2 December 1915, died in Tokyo on 27 October 2016 at age 100.
- Emperor of Japan, 1926-1989.
- Died at 6:33am, Tokyo time.
- Son Akihito succeeded him as emperor of Japan.
- Also known as the Showa Emperor, from the name of his reign era. (after the Meiji Restoration, Japanese eras - the traditional dating system, was reset to follow the reigns of the emperors:
Meiji: Reign of Mutsohito 1868 - 1912 Taisho: Reign of Yoshihito 1912 - 1926 Showa: Reign of Hirohito 1926 - 1989 Heisei: Reign of Akihito 1989 - 2019 Reiwa: Reign of Naruhito 2019 - present). - Portrayed by Hakuô Matsumoto in Japan's Longest Day (1967), John Fujioka in MacArthur (1977) and Lingmu Zhang in The Last Emperor (1987).
- Although the three Axis power leaders were frequently used in much war propaganda, Hirohito was quite very different than both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. He not only headed a non-European country (and remained alive and in power after the war), since he was emperor, he was born into the Japanese royal family (and the throne went to him in 1926), while Hitler and Mussolini both went into power without being elected.
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