Emperor's war responsibility pledge missing from documents

[cstaylor]

Emperor's war responsibility pledge missing from documents

Documents detailing talks between Emperor Hirohito and Gen. Douglas MacArthur don't contain the emperor's alleged pledge to take responsibility for Japan's war efforts, it was learned Thursday.

Japanese history expert Kenichi Matsumoto at Reitaku University said that bureaucrats might have struck out the emperor's comments related to responsibility for the war apparently because they were afraid such records would be utilized in war trials.

[Mulboyne]

TMC: Britain sought speedy end to hostilities after hint of Japan surrender
Britain's end-of-war Prime Minister Clement Atlee was keen to give up on the insistence that Japan's Emperor Hirohito be treated as a war criminal if it meant hostilities in the Far East would come to a quicker end in August 1945, according to papers released Sunday..."Mistake to hold out for punishment of Emperor as war criminal if it means delaying substantially end of hostilities," Atlee is reported to have said Aug. 10 following an announcement of the Japanese government's surrender broadcast by Japan's Domei news agency. "Religious position is such that if you don't imply the Emperor will remain the (Japanese) may push it to suicide," Earnest Bevin, Atlee's foreign secretary, says during a debate as to whether the United States would accept a conditional surrender based on Emperor Hirohito retaining his title. But Atlee implies that the Potsdam declaration is unclear in its reference to the maintenance of the emperor, saying, "Doubt if U.S. will go on sacrificing lives for a technicality," adding that having prisoners of war and civilians in Japanese hands may mean that "pastoral life with Emperor" may be easier than a capitalist republic.