How the Emperor Survived
When the Empire of Japan surrendered to the US and its allies in August 1945, it insisted on one condition for the total surrender of the Imperial Army and Navy.
The Imperial Government announced that it would accept the Potsdam Declaration under the sole condition of maintaining the imperial system. Japanese leaders, including the Emperor himself, did not want to see Japan after WWII become a republic without the emperor (like Germany after WWI). They wanted to secure the imperial authority in Japan, though the victory nation, the US, could force the imperial system to be abolished as US troops now occupied Japan. Japanese elites had a fear that the US Government might even assign responsibility of making the war and war crimes to the Emperor. The Emperor (Hirohito) should not be regraded as a kind of Hitler for any counts and in any account.
But it was soon found that the supreme commander of the US occupation forces (and the allied forces), General MacArthur, wanted the Emperor to cooperate with him for peaceful and effective occupation of Japan. MacArthur even did not want the Emperor to step down taking any responsibility and have one of his brothers succeed him as new emperor. So, the Emperor (of the Showa period) continued his role as the head of Japan over adoption and enforcement of the new Japanese Constitution and the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals.
The Emperor who had been the head of the Empire of Japan when the Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 survived the Occupation of Japan by the US and the Allies that continued till 1952 to live and keep the highest public position of Japan till 1989 (when he died)．
In 1945 when battles continued around the Japanese archipelago, General MacArthur had been determined to take the emperor on his side to occupy Japan smoothly and economically without resistance and terror. He somewhat understood that the key to his success in the coming occupation of Japan was how much he could leverage an overwhelming influence of the Emperor on the Japanese people.
But, MacArthur was not an expert of Japan. He only visited the Empire once before WWII. Though the General had deep experiences in the Philippines and thus Asian ways of politics, he needed somebody that knew Japan very well.
So, Brigadier General Bonner Fellers came to assist General MacArthur. Fellers had visited the Empire of Japan four times before WWII. He had some friends among the Japanese elites. And Fellers viewed the emperor with favor. Fellers cooperated with MacArthur to protect the Emperor from the Soviet Union, China, etc. that wanted to bring in an indictment against the Emperor in the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals.
So, the key person who successfully protected the Emperor of Japan after WWII is Bonner Fellers.
Bonner Frank Fellers (1896–1973), was a U.S. Army officer who served during World War II as military attaché and psychological warfare director. He was a considered a protégé of General Douglas MacArthur.Pro-Japanese Fellers loved a book written by a Western author, named Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, (1850-1904) who became a naturalized Japanese citizen in the name of Yakumo Koizumi. The book taught Fellers so much about Japan. Based on deep understanding of the Japanese culture, history, traditions, politics, and religion he obtained from Hearn's books and his relationship with some Japanese Christians, Fellers made a strong effort to save the Emperor in the difficult period of Japan after WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonner_Fellers
The book is titled JAPAN, AN ATTEMPT AT INTERPRETATION, The Macmillan Company, New York [1904].
The Rise of the Military Power
ALMOST the whole of authentic Japanese history is comprised in one vast episode: the rise and fall of the military power. . . .
...and the Tokugawa shôgunate, which lasted until 1867, gave the country fifteen military sovereigns. Under these, Japan enjoyed both peace and prosperity for the time of two hundred and fifty years; and her society was thus enabled to evolve to the full limit of its peculiar type. Industries and arts developed in new and wonderful ways; literature found august patronage. The national cult was carefully maintained; and all precautions were taken to prevent the occurrence of another such contest for the imperial succession as had nearly ruined the country in the fourteenth century.
We have seen that the history of military rule in Japan embraces nearly the whole period of authentic history, down to modern times, and closes with the second period of national integration. The first period had been reached when the clans first accepted the leadership of the chief of the greatest clan,--thereafter revered as the Heavenly Sovereign, Supreme Pontiff, Supreme Arbiter, Supreme Commander, and Supreme Magistrate. How long a time was required for this primal integration, under a patriarchal monarchy, we cannot know; but we have learned that the later integration, under a duarchy, occupied considerably more than a thousand years. . . . Now the extraordinary fact to note is that, during all those centuries, the imperial cult was carefully maintained by even the enemies of the Mikado; the only legitimate ruler being, in national belief, the Tenshi, "Son of Heaven,"--the Tennô, "Heavenly King." Through every period of disorder the Offspring of the Sun was the object of national worship, and his palace the temple of the national faith. Great captains might coerce the imperial will; but they styled themselves, none the less, the worshippers and slaves of the incarnate deity; and they would no more have thought of trying to occupy his throne, than they would have thought of trying to abolish all religion by decree. Once only, by the arbitrary folly of the Ashikaga shôgun, the imperial cult had been seriously interfered with; and the social earthquake consequent upon that division of the imperial house, apprised the usurpers of the enormity of their blunder. . . . Only the integrity of the imperial succession, the uninterrupted maintenance of the imperial worship, made it possible even for Iyéyasu to clamp together the indissoluble units of society.
Herbert Spencer has taught the student of sociology to recognize that religious dynasties have extraordinary powers of longevity, because they possess extraordinary power to resist change; whereas military dynasties, depending for their perpetuity upon the individual character of their sovereigns, are particularly liable to disintegration. The immense duration of the Japanese imperial dynasty, as contrasted with the history of the various shôgunates and regencies representing a merely military domination, illustrates this teaching in a most remarkable way. Back through twenty-five hundred years we can follow the line of the imperial succession, till it vanishes out of sight into the mystery of the past. Here we have evidence of that extreme power of resisting all changes which is inherently characteristic of religious conservatism; on the other hand, the history of shôgunates and regencies proves the tendency to disintegration of institutions having no religious foundation, and therefore no religious power of cohesion. The remarkable duration of the Fujiwara rule, as compared with others, may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the Fujiwara represented a religious, rather than a military. aristocracy. Even the marvellous military structure devised by Iyéyasu had begun to decay before alien aggression precipitated its inevitable collapse.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/jai/jai14.htm
The emperor of Japan is not a type of kings as is seen in Europe or Asia. The imperial family has enjoyed its continuity for about 2000 years or since the beginning of written history of Japan. The emperor is the greatest priest of the Shinto religion which was formed through combination of ancient Chinese philosophy and Japanese native spiritualism. Even in the 8th century, the emperor virtually ceased to be the active commander in chief of the imperial military. But the imperial authority has been always supported by its religious influence on the Japanese or at least Japanese elites and other dignitaries who held actual political or military power.
Finally, most of the Japanese people did not want the Showa Emperor to take responsibility of the past wars against China and the US and the Allies. Even today, the imperial family of Japan enjoys the highest public status in Japan. The long history of Japan continues with the emperor just like the Christian world continues with the Pope.
The Emperor of Showa at Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo, in 1935
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Joh 7:25 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill?
Joh 7:26 But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?
Joh 7:27 Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.
Joh 7:28 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.