I think the Emperor got off easy; those people willing to fight to the death were doing so for him. Japanese rifles from the war are more valuable if they have the chrysanthemum emblem on them because the owner probably died in action; at the end of the war the Japanese soldiers filed those off before turning them in to avoid disgracing the emperor.
They slaughtered people across Asia and the throughout the islands (from the Philippines to Indonesia, Korea to Burma); unfortunately, in losing the war they lost their way, and the culture today is dysfunctional and dwindling.
Interesting. The rest of Asia is still seething at modern Japan’s inability to acknowledge WWII atrocities committed by Imperial Japanese forces. But in disconnecting themselves from their unsavory wartime past, today’s Japanese have also forsaken their classical roots which valued hard work, respect for elders & ancestors, and appreciation of the higher esthetics in art & literature.
`Anomie’ is the correct term for this societal malaise & lack of higher purpose in life, IIRC.
Only their geographical advantage as an island nation prevents Japan from sinking into multicultural dissolution. For example, they have almost no Muslim problem over there as muzzies are treated as the worst sort of foreigners, and are deported at the first sign of causing trouble.
Meanwhile, Japan’s birth rate is well below replacement level.
I had heard the condition of surrender was that the Emperor be spared.