On the anniversary of Hirohito’s death (he died Jan. 7, 1989), LIFE.com presents these Eisenstaedt pictures as a window into a world where the unthinkable had not only become reality, but had turned the universe inside out. Hirohito — a divine being to millions of his subjects — had been transformed by defeat into a beaten (if still outwardly dignified) man.
See the photos here.

