Replying to a message of Tony Ingenoso to Jeff Shultz:

 TI> From: "Tony Ingenoso" 

 TI> I believe the emperor was a figurehead, above the mundane issues like
 TI> prosecuting a war.  Tojo was the poobah running the ops.

The emperor was in fact the emperor.  However, Hirohito pretty much
rubberstamped everything Tojo proposed until very late in the war. 
Hirohito actually decided to surrender *before* the a-bombs were used - and
there was some fear that the hard-liners (led by Tojo) would actually
assassinate him because of it.  But Tojo and his people did fall into line.
 The Japanese government ordered its ambassador in Moscow (Russia did not
declare war on Japan until *after* Hiroshima) to ask the Russians to
approach the Allies to begin talks on surrender.  Stalin did not pass the
information along.  We know about it now because the Japanese diplomatic
messages were intercepted, but were not transcribed, decoded and translated
until long after the war had already ended ("The Codebreakers",
David Kahn, MacMillan, 1966).

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