SMOKING GUN

Memo Suggests Emperor Hirohito Supported Pearl Harbor Attack

Emperor's level of support for the war has always been controversial.

Emperor Hirohito of Japan approved of the decision to attack Pearl Harbor, a newly-discovered memo suggests. “The emperor seemed at ease and unshakable once he had made a decision,” the prime minister Hideki Tojo is quoted as telling a colleague hours before the Japanese launched their attack on Pearl Harbor which killed nearly 2,400 American servicemen and pushed America into the war. The memo was discovered by a bookseller who kept it secret for nine years because Hirohito’s long-rumored support for entering the war has always been a sensitive subject in Japan. Hirohito was left in power by the U.S. and died in 1989 at age 87 after 62 years on the throne. The memo supports the view that Hirohito was not unhappy to wage war on the U.S. “If His Majesty had any regret over negotiations with Britain and the U.S., he would have looked somewhat grim. There was no such indication, which must be a result of his determination,” Tojo is quoted as saying in the memo. “I’m completely relieved. Given the current conditions, I could say we have practically won already.”