Hirohito, Emperor Showa

Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa (1901-1989) was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, beginning his reign in 1926. Under his reign, Japan become a member of the Axis, and fought the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. After the unconditional surrender of Japan in 1945, the Emperor cooperated with the reorganization of the Japanese state during the Allied occupation of Japan, and lived to see Japan become a highly urbanized democracy and one of the industrial and technological powerhouses of the world.

Hirohito in Worldwar
When the Race's Conquest Fleet invaded Earth in 1942, Hirohito led Japan into a co-belligerency with his Axis allies as well as former enemies including the United States and China. Hirohito was firm about his country's intent to fight the Race from the outset, and the country remained independent,. although not without a price. The capital city, Tokyo, was destroyed by the Race when they learned of Japan's atomic bomb program. Thus, at the Peace of Cairo, Japan was less a negotiator and more an observer, and had their gains in China taken from them by the Race without recourse.

After the war, Hirohito formed much closer economic ties with the United States. In 1965, Japan successfully tested its own explosive-metal bomb at Bikini Atoll, and demanded full diplomatic relations with the Race.

Despite his title, the Race saw Hirohito as a "false front" for those who wielded true power in Japan.

Hirohito in Days of Infamy
Hirohito gave his blessing to the the invasion of Hawaii as the opening stages of its war with the United States.

Hirohito in The War That Came Early
During the reign of Hirohito, Japan attacked China in 1937, and then the Soviet Union in April, 1939. In summer, 1940, after Japan had successfully overrun Vladivostok, Japan and the USSR made peace. However, tensions between Japan and the United States began ratcheting up throughout the remainder of 1940. On January 12 1941, Japan launched a war with the U.S.

While Japan was initially able to gain substantial advantages in the Pacific throughout the war, by 1944, the fragile supply line they'd built began to collapse. With the war in Europe ending in mid-1944, the USSR turned its attention east again, and began closer cooperation with the U.S. in its war against Japan.

Hirohito in Joe Steele
Hirohito (1901-1945) was killed when his train was struck by an incendiary bomb during the American invasion of Japan in December 1945.

Hirohito in Southern Victory
Hirohito inherited a Japan that had proven itself as a military force. Japan defeated Spain in the early 20th century, taking the Philippines, Korea, and Formosa and shoring up its holdings in East Asia. During the Great War, Japan had taken colonies from Germany and forcibly purchased former French Indochina ,and the Dutch East Indies from France, and Holland respectively after the Entente's defeat. Under Hirohito's reign, Japan fought the inconclusive Pacific War. Japan also launched an attack on the United States during the Second Great War, which again proved inconclusive for both sides. Japan, unable to force the USA from the Sandwich Islands, abandoned Midway and Wake Island and turned its attention to the Asian holdings of its former ally, Britain.

Literary Note
Hirohito's role in Southern Victory is speculative, as Hirohito is not specifically named. However, nothing in the known history of the timeline counters this assumption.