[paganel]

> The Emperor was a symbolic figurehead who helped unite and reconcile postwar Japan.

Yes, the symbol of the Nanjing Massacre.

> and reconcile postwar Japan.

That was the US's doing, Japan still functions by the constitution imposed by MacArthur.

Also, more generally, the fact that people in the West are white-washing guys like Hirohito is a very big part of why we're in the current geopolitical mess. It would help if, for once, the West would admit: "yeah, we let that killer in place because it suited our geo-political interests back in the day". But were they (the Westerners) to do that then we wouldn't have blog-posts like this one here which totally goes over Japan's war-crimes (and does not mention Hiroshima nor Nagasaki, although it doesn't forget to mention that China, Russia and North Korea now have nukes).