TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Imperial Household Agency has compiled a 61-volume biography of former Emperor Hirohito that portrays him as being distressed that he could not stop his country from going to war, according to Japan’s Kyodo News agency.

The 12,000-page record says he complained in July 1939 to Army Minister Seishiro Itagaki about the military’s “predisposition” as it strengthened its relationship with Germany, Kyodo reported. He also warned against the navy’s call for war with the United States, predicting in July 1941 that it would be “nothing less than a self-destructive war.”