Emperor Hirohito (Showa)

Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989), known posthumously as Emperor Showa, was the emperor of Japan from 1926 until his death, the longest reign in the country's recorded history. He occupied the throne during the era of Japanese militarism and territorial expansion, including the invasion of China from the 1930s and the Pacific War that Japan launched against the Allied powers in 1941, and he announced the country's surrender in August 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Historians continue to debate the extent of his personal responsibility for wartime decisions; under the postwar constitution he renounced claims to divinity and reigned as a ceremonial constitutional symbol during Japan's postwar recovery.