One of the remaining mysteries of World War II could be solved later this year when Japan’s Imperial Household Agency completes a 24-year project to compile the record of the late Emperor Hirohito’s role in Japan’s government before and during the war.

Critics contend the emperor has the blood of millions on his hands.  He was Japan’s commander-in-chief during the 1930s and 1940s, when Japan rolled across Asia in a ruthless series of conquests and atrocities.  State propaganda revered him as a demigod of Shintoism in whose name the Japanese troops would kill or be killed.

But supporters claim he was only a figurehead, largely uninvolved in day-to-day operations of any part of government, and it was his generals and ministers who were out of control. 

The publication will include the diaries of aides and medical records, as well as information gleaned through unpublished private documents and from interviews with former officials.  All of it will be carefully scrutinized for what it may reveal about Hirohito’s role.

The Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency, Noriyuki Kazaoka, says he does not want to see any part of the record “blacked out” from public view.  But a decade ago, researchers and historians were outraged when the Kunai-Cho released a similar history of Hirohito’s father, Taisho – which was heavily redacted, ostensibly to protect “personal information”.  Taisho was surrounded by rumors of ill mental health and withdrew from the public eye altogether early in his reign, handing all official public duties to his son Hirohito.