Who Decided Pearl Harbor Attack
When the last samurai regime fell in 1868, modernization and Westernization of politics started in Japan.
But those who replaced the samurai regime led by the Tokugawa clan were also samurais. This regime change was realized through a civil war between the Tokugawa camp and anti-Tokugawa camp of samurais. It was war among samurais but not war between the samurai clan and other civilians. It was not a revolution. But as those anti-Tokugawa samurais took the emperor on their side, this incident is called the Meiji Restoration (of the imperial authority). Indeed, the year 1868 was the first year of the Meiji era in the Japanese calendar.
In the samurai era before the Meiji period, there were several social classes in Japan. At the top were the emperor, the imperial family, and other noble people who lived in Kyoto. And then, samurais constituted their own class while functioning as generals, officers, soldiers, policemen, bureaucrats, scholars, engineers, and so on. Other classes including farmers, craftsmen, merchants, etc. all were subject to samurais. Ordinary samurais belonged to samurai lords. Each samurai lord governed his clan who occupied its own territory and farmers who cultivated the land. And, the head of all the samurai clans in Japan was called shogun who even managed and supervised the imperial house in Kyoto. The shogun was virtually king of Japan who presided all over Japan from the great city Edo.
Anyway, the Tokugawa shogun resigned when his military was defeated by anti-Tokugawa samurais in 1868. The Tokugawa shogun left the samurai capital Edo (now called Tokyo) and the Edo castle (now the imperial palace). Then the emperor was invited to come from Kyoto to Tokyo. Anti-Tokugawa samurais who won the civil war occupied Tokyo and formed a new Japanese government. They changed clothing from kimono to European suits. They changed a hairstyle and stopped carrying swords. But samurais needed the emperor to build new Japan as a modern empire. So, the constitution of the Empire of Japan was formulated where the emperor was recognized as constitutional monarch.
But, it was not the imperial family that established the modern empire of Japan. It was samurais. Accordingly, ex-samurai bureaucrats and politicians in the Empire of Japan did not much respect the emperor in politics and military affairs. Though a supreme meeting was specified to be convened with presence of the empire when deciding critical issues, the emperor was not supposed to discuss a matter or even speak in the meeting. Every critical decision was made by ex-samurai politicians and generals/admirals in the Empire of Japan in the Meiji era.
Though the era changed from Meiji to Taisho and Showa in Japan, this governmental regime did not change.
That is why it is thought that the emperor of the Showa era could not prevent the imperial military from deciding the plan to attack the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, if he had been truly against the idea of making war against the US.
Generals and admirals of the Empire, namely descendants of samurais, had already decided to launch a war against the US when a supreme meeting with the emperor was held several times in 1941. (It is because the US stopped export of crude oil to Japan while requesting the Empire to withdraw its troops from China.)
They wanted the emperor to accept a result of the meeting which had been determined beforehand. The emperor felt a doubt about whether or not the Empire could defeat the US and the UK. But he was eventually persuaded to authorize the war plan. Even if the emperor had claimed anything those generals and admirals could not accept, those military leaders would sabotage the process to enforce the will of the emperor. There was no other way for the emperor than to follow decisions made by leaders of the Imperial military, since real power was in the hand of those descendants of samurais.
The emperor was not a puppet. He had at least absolute authority in terms of the shinto religion. As most of the Japanese people had faith in supreme political authority of the emperor before the end of WWII, any politician or military leader who was openly opposed to the will of the emperor would lose respect and should be purged. But, real power was still in the hand of descendants of samurais who had carried out the Meiji Restoration till the end of WWII.
Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi in Japanese) (literally the conference before the noble face) was an extraconstitutional conference of matters of grave national importance in foreign affairs that were convened by the government of the Empire of Japan in the presence of the Emperor.
Typically attending the Gozen Kaigi were (in addition to the Emperor himself):
- the Prime Minister
- the Minister of Foreign Affairs
- the Minister of Finance
- the President of the Planning Board
- the Minister of War
- the Minister of the Navy
- the Chief of the Army General Staff and
- the Chief of the Navy General Staff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gozen_Kaigi
Showa Emperor of Japan before WWII
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Joh 7:10 But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
Joh 7:11 Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?
Joh 7:12 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.
Joh 7:13 Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.