This was not quite the same thing with respect to Shintoism. Consider if President Bush declared himself to be God and declared everyone not believing in him to not be Christian. That's along the lines of what the Showa Emperor did. He was always considered divine, but emperor worship coopted what had used to be Shintoism.
Going back sixty years to diss someone's religion in order to attack a current President is below the belt in my opinion.
Agreed, it was an unbelievably cruel article. I think though, that the comparison the author wanted to draw was the parallels between kamikazi and the suicide bombers and get in a dig at the religion of peace. Clever, but in extremely poor taste.