Hirohito crowned in Japan. Two years after his father’s death, Michinomiya Hirohito was crowned the 124th monarch of a Japanese imperial dynasty dating back to 660 BC. Emperor Hirohito ruled during one of the most turbulent periods in Japanese history. From the rapid military expansion beginning in 1931 until Japan’s tragic defeat by the Allies in 1945, Hirohito governed the Japanese people with an absolutist regime, exercising powers that, however, were quite limited in practice. After the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was Hirohito who advocated surrender, explaining to his people, in his first radio address, that it was necessary to “endure the unendurable.” During the US occupation and post-war reconstruction, Hirohito was formally stripped of his powers and forced to renounce his supposed divine prerogatives, but he remained the official leader of his country until his death in 1989. His reign was the longest in Japanese history.
