Product Description

Drawing on a vast range of sources, from manga comics to MacArthur's report to Congress, this monumental new work by America's foremost historian of modern Japan traces the impact of defeat and reconstruction on every aspect of Japan's national life. Alongside the familiar story of economic resurgence, Dower examines how the nation as a whole reacted to the contradictory experiences of humiliation at the hands of a foreign power and liberation from the demands of a suicidal nationalism. The result is a titanic history, and a landmark book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105468 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Embracing Defeat tells the story of the transformation of Japan under American occupation after World War II. When Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces in August 1945 it was exhausted; while America's Pacific combat lasted less than four years Japan had been fighting for 15. 60 percent of its urban area lay in ruins. Through the collapse of the authoritarian state and America's six-year occupation Japan was able to set off in entirely new directions. Because the victors had no linguistic or cultural access to the losers' society they were obliged to govern indirectly. General Douglas MacArthur decided at the outset to maintain the civil bureaucracy and the institution of the emperor: democracy would be imposed from above in what the author terms "Neocolonial Revolution". His description of the manipulation of public opinion as a wedge was driven between the discredited militarists and Emperor Hirohito is especially fascinating. Tojo, on trial for his life, was requested to take responsibility for the war and deflect it from the emperor; he did and was hanged. John W. Dower's analysis of popular Japanese culture of the period--songs, magazines, advertising, even jokes--is brilliant and reflected in the book's 80 well-chosen photographs. With the same masterful control of voluminous material and clear writing that he gave us in War Without Mercy the author paints a vivid picture of a society in extremis and reconstructs the extraordinary period during which America moulded a traumatised country into a freemarket democracy and bulwark against resurgent world communism. --John Stevenson

About the Author
John Dower is Henry Luce Professor of International Cooperation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of JAPAN AT WAR and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner WAR WITHOUT MERCY.

Customer Reviews

A clear and well-written book on a subject often overlooked
The rapid and peaceful transformation of Japan after World War Two from a ravaged, war-torn country to a successful, propserous nation whose economy ranks number 2 in the world today is a subject, or more accurately, a phenomenon, that is often overlooked and taken for granted. Yet, this was, at that time, by no means a foregone outcome, and indeed many Japanese feared that their American occupiers would unleash revenge upon them for Japan's wartime atrocities. This in essence is what John Dower's book is about. In clear and easy-to-understand language, refraining from confusing technical and historical jargon, Dower shows how this process was undertaken by the Americans, and essentially how it was viewed and experienced by the Japanese themselves. Ranging from a vivid description of the desperate situation that Japan found herself after the war to the intriguing question of why the Emperor was allowed to keep his place on the throne and the persistant issue of Japan's war-time responsibility, this book guides the reader by the hand through a period in history that was extraordinary and unprecedented. Even if one has little interest or background in Japanese or American history, "Embracing Defeat" is a marvellous book to read as a novel, testimony to the fact that it won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction writing.

Fascinating and ground-breaking piece of social history
Few countries have been through a set of social changes as quickly and dramatically as Japan under the US military occupation. After living there for several years in the nineties, I realised how crucial these years were: I wondered how a very militarised nation with a very subtle culture became the economically vibrant open state with a rather cutesy popular culture. In other words, how the cult of the emperor, say, was replaced with the cult of Hello Kitty. Also, the current political and business leaders of Japan went through their formative years at this time and the occupation's impact casts a long shadow over modern Japan's entire cultural life: one that is very rarely discussed, even inside the country.

Dower sets out to describe the political and social changes in a comprehensive way, rather than to answer the questions that I had. In doing so, he sets a new standard, not only in Japanese history, but for social history generally. He describes how the country's politics, high art, popular culture, economics, legal system, and social relations in the family and the workplace were altered by the occupation policy, very often in ways the occupiers neither intended nor expected. Also he describes the ways different groups in Japan subverted or altered these changes.

As a book, it was even quite moving, describing how people managed to survive a very difficult time, and how they used the opportunities offered to them to create a new society and a new national culture.

With the occupaton of Japan being put forward today in Washington as a model for a post-Saddam occupation of Iraq, this book is even more timely: not only for those interested in Japan or in social history, but also for those interested in US foreign policy and its impact on the rest of the world.