[cranks]

Yeah, I have never heard my grand father, who was 21 when the war started, say anything about Emperor. Older people probably have more respect for him, but it was not like Emperor ruled Japan, unlike a lot of westerners believe. If you study Japanese history, you'll see Emperors stopped being an actual ruler about 800 years ago. After that, they were more or less the symbol of other actually rulers' legitimacy. You might know, the title Shogun(将軍) means "a (military) general", and its unabridged version is 征夷大将軍 (Great general of North conqueror). This title had been given by the Emperor to almost all rulers of Japan for 700 years but that does not mean the Emperor had much power over them. This is a peculiar Japanese political game which may be hard to understand at the first glance.