On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 09:17:24 -0000, "Keith Willshaw"
wrote:


The God emperor was Hirohito who while nominally having
absolute power had none in reality. Up until the 1920's
the Japanese political system was lareky analagous to
that of Britain. There was a cremonial head of state
with an elected Parliament, there was however a fatal
flaw in that the armed forces were responsible directly to
the Emperor and were thus able to circumvent Parliamentary
control and effectively seize power.

Keith

I would say that you are correct in most areas-- but there is some
evidence that Hirohito was more "in the know" than has been commonly
believed.
Of course, there are also those who say that this is simply trying
to "rewrite" history, and I for one don't have the knowledge base to
decide between the two viewpoints.