Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa, was uneasy with Japan's drift to war in the 1930s and 1940s but was unable to alter the course of events, according to a declassified British government assessment upon the Emperor's death in January 1989.

Debate has often raged over the extent to which Emperor Showa was culpable for Japan's wartime past, with some critics claiming he was complicit in the atrocities.

Writing a few weeks after the Emperor's death, John Whitehead, Britain's ambassador to Japan, stated, "A man of stronger personality than Hirohito might have tried more strenuously to check the growing influence of the military in Japanese politics and the drift of Japan toward war with the Western powers.