Hirohito

Hirohito And The Making Of Modern Japan

Trained since childhood to lead his nation as a living deity, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito cultivated a detached façade which masked a fierce cunning and powerful ambition. Historian Herbert P. Bix has unearthed hundreds of previously untapped documents, including the unpublished letters and diaries of Hirohito’s royal court, shedding light on his uniquely active yet self-effacing stewardship. Debunking the common image of Hirohito as a pawn in the hands of the military, Bix exposes the emperor’s personal involvement in every stage of the Pacific War. He shows how Hirohito avoided punishment for his nation’s defeat and how the Japanese people have struggled to come to terms with this dark chapter in their history. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan explains the impact this enigmatic figure had on Japan and its place on the world stage. Herbert P. Bix earned his Ph.D. in history and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University. For the past thirty years, he has written extensively on modern and contemporary Japanese history in leading journals in the U.S. and Japan. He has taught Japanese history at a number of American and Japanese Universities, most recently at Harvard and the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. He lives in Winthrop, MA. “A historical bombshell ... The most controversial book yet on Japan’s previous emperor.” — The Economist

Hirohito

Hirohito and War

The debate over Emperor Hirohito's accountability for government decisions and military operations up to the end of the World War II began before the end of the war and has continued even after his death. This book documents this controversy while providing insights into the Showa emperor's role in military planning in imperial Japan. It argues that Hirohito both knew of and participated in such planning and offers evidence that he was informed well in advance of the planned attack on Pearl Harbor. Using Japanese primary sources, this text aims to show that Hirohito's participation in the decision-making process was entirely consistent with his intellectual background and his passionate belief in the significance of the imperial tradition for the Japanese polity (kokutai) in prewar Japan.