Toni’s Reviews > Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan > Status Update

please god release me from my misery

By fighting an "incident" rather than a war, Japan could enable American industrial and raw-material exporters to circumvent the U.S. Neutrality Act of 1935 and 1937-a profitable arrangement that American business, in the grip of renewed depression, was eager to continue.

Guess the Americans have always favoured economic matters over morality and international relations.

1921: PM Hara is assassinated, Emperor Yoshihito is frail of health... time for Hirohito to start his regency and stir up the waters.

On Hirohito:
his slightness, his squeaky voice, and his only average intelligence-were an educational asset; an anchor, tying him to reality, helping to counter the dangerous mythological hype. He was also a person who did not understand things intuitively but learned them soon enough, by necessity.