ABSTRACT
Hirohito exerted a strong moral influence on Japan's pre——World War II leaders and formed the stable center of Japanese politics and society throughout his life. Hirohito mixed the Japanese emperor's traditional roles with deep intellectual curiosity. Hirohito walked a delicate line between the forces of democracy and militarism during the 1920s and 1930s, foiling a coup in 1936 by personally ordering the rebels to desist. Hirohito continued to serve as a moral center for Japan and became its chief agent of post-war reconciliation, culminating with a visit to the United States in 1975. Hirohito had to balance political forces that sought to return Japan to the conservative, class-bound society it had been before Japan ended its self-imposed isolation in 1868. Hirohito had a reputation as a peace lover, beginning in 1921 with his expressions of horror at seeing Europe's World War I battlefields.
