What was the name of the Japanese emperor during World War II?

Hirohito was the Japanese emperor during World War II. He reigned from 1926 until his death in 1989 and was emperor throughout Japan’s expansion in Asia, its war with the Allied powers, and its eventual surrender in 1945.

Hirohito’s reign was officially known as the Shōwa era, so he is also commonly called Emperor Shōwa. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, after the emperor formally sanctioned the government’s decision to go to war against the United States and its allies. On August 15, 1945, he announced Japan’s surrender in a radio broadcast—the first time most Japanese citizens had heard his voice.

The name Hirohito is still widely used in English-language history, although “Hirohito” was his personal name and “Emperor Shōwa” is his posthumous title. Akihito was his son and succeeded him in 1989. Hideki Tojo was Japan’s wartime prime minister, not the emperor, while Yamamoto was the surname of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.