Download or read book Hirohito And The Making Of Modern Japan written by Herbert P. Bix and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority. Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different. Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people. The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past. Until the very end of a career that embodied the conflicting aims of Japan's development as a nation, Hirohito remained preoccupied with politics and with his place in history. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan provides the definitive account of his rich life and legacy. Meticulously researched and utterly engaging, this book is proof that the history of twentieth-century Japan cannot be understood apart from the life of its most remarkable and enduring leader.
Download or read book Emperor Hirohito and Showa Japan written by Stephen Large and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emperor Hirohito reigned for more than sixty years, yet we know little about him or the part he really played in the turbulent history of Showa Japan. Stephen Large draws on a wide range of Japanese and Western sources in his study of Emperor Hirohito's political role in Showa Japan (1926-89). This analysis focuses on key events in his career such as the extent to which he bore responsibility for Japanese aggression in the Pacific in 1941, and explains why Hirohito remains such a contested symbol in Japanese post war politics.
Download or read book Emperor Hirohito and the Pacific War written by Noriko Kawamura and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reexamination of the controversial role Emperor Hirohito played during the Pacific War gives particular attention to the question: If the emperor could not stop Japan from going to war with the Allied Powers in 1941, why was he able to play a crucial role in ending the war in 1945? Drawing on previously unavailable primary sources, Noriko Kawamura traces Hirohito’s actions from the late 1920s to the end of the war, analyzing the role Hirohito played in Japan’s expansion. Emperor Hirohito emerges as a conflicted man who struggled throughout the war to deal with the undefined powers bestowed upon him as a monarch, often juggling the contradictory positions and irreconcilable differences advocated by his subordinates. Kawamura shows that he was by no means a pacifist, but neither did he favor the reckless wars advocated by Japan’s military leaders.
Download or read book Hirohito Emperor of Japan written by Leonard Mosley and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hirohito written by Edwin P. Hoyt and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1992-03-23 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of Emperor Hirohito challenging portrayals of him as an unworldly scientist or military might, but a peaceful man caught up in a turbulent time.
Download or read book Hirohito and War written by Peter Wetzler and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1998-02-01 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Hirohito The Sh wa Emperor in War and Peace written by Ikuhiko Hata and published by Global Oriental. This book was released on 2007-07-12 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a most important new work on Emperor Hirohito by one of Japan’s leading historians, Ikuhiko Hata. Following the untimely death of Marius B. Jansen (Emeritus Professor, University of Princeton) in December 2000, who had been actively collaborating with the author and translator of the original Japanese edition (Hirohito Tenno itsutsu no ketsudan, first published in 1987 and republished in 1994), it was inevitable that there would be a delay in publication of the English edition, which is finally now available. In his extended Foreword as editor, referring to the nature of Hirohito’s power, Jansen states: ‘We are left with puzzles that will probably never be resolved. Clearly, as Professor Hata and others have shown, the Emperor Hirohito had immense power, but the condition of retaining it was judicious restraint in exercising it.’ In offering a view on the merits of Hata’s research, Jansen points to the hitherto unknown plots (in parallel but unrelated) by both the Army and Navy to preserve, and if necessary resuscitate, the imperial line in the event the victors decided to depose Hirohito. Jansen also points to the merits of Hata’s particular focus on the contribution Hirohito made to Japan in its post-war relations with the United States. Jansen added substantive notes to help place the author’s material in historical and historiographical perspective. The book, which is not a biography or a general history of the Showa era, focuses on five decisions taken by Emperor Hirohito, which the author considers the key turning points of his reign: these concern the 26 February 1936 insurrection of young army officers, the termination of the Pacific War, the post-war constitution, the issue of abdication and the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
Download or read book Hirohito written by Edward Behr and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1990 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This superbly documented, revisionist biography of Emperor Hirohito, the longest reigning monarch of the twentieth century, clearly establishies Hirohito as a war criminal. 8 page photo insert.
Download or read book Hirohito s War written by Francis Pike and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-08 with total page 1209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of Foreign Affairs' Best Books of 2016 In his magisterial 1,208 page narrative of the Pacific War, Francis Pike's Hirohito's War offers an original interpretation, balancing the existing Western-centric view with attention to the Japanese perspective on the conflict. As well as giving a 'blow-by-blow' account of campaigns and battles, Francis Pike offers many challenges to the standard interpretations with regards to the causes of the war; Emperor Hirohito's war guilt; the inevitability of US Victory; the abilities of General MacArthur and Admiral Yamamoto; the role of China, Great Britain and Australia; military and naval technology; and the need for the fire-bombing of Japan and the eventual use of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hirohito's War is accompanied by additional online resources, including more details on logistics, economics, POWs, submarines and kamikaze, as well as a 1930-1945 timeline and over 200 maps.
Download or read book Embracing Defeat written by John W Dower and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2000-07-04 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of modern Japan traces the impact of defeat and reconstruction on every aspect of Japan's national life. It examines the economic resurgence as well as how the nation as a whole reacted to defeat and the end of a suicidal nationalism.
Download or read book In the Realm of a Dying Emperor written by Norma Field and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-02-09 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, Japanese newspapers had to use a special, exalted word to refer to his death, and had to depict his life uncritically, as one beginning in turbulence but ending in magnificent accomplishment. To do otherwise would have exposed them to terrorism from the vigilant right wing. Yet this insightful book by a Japanese-American scholar who grew up in both cultures reveals the hidden fault lines in the realm of the dying emperor by telling the stories of three unlikely dissenters: a supermarket owner who burned the national flag; an aging widow who challenged the state's "deification" of fallen soldiers; and the mayor of Nagasaki, who risked his career and his life by suggesting that Hirohito bore some responsibility for World War II.
Download or read book Hirohito written by Hourly History and published by . This book was released on 2018-12-05 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hirohito Japanese Emperor Hirohito is one of history's most enigmatic figures. He led the Japanese during the darkest point of their history as they joined forces with the fascism of Nazi Germany and Italy. Upon Japan's defeat most believed that Emperor Hirohito would stand trial for the war crimes he was accused of presiding over. But the trial never happened. Instead, to the surprise of the whole world--and most likely Hirohito himself--he was placed back on his throne and allowed to administer affairs in Japan until the day he died peacefully in 1989. How did all this come about? Read further to discover the life and the legend of Japan's most notorious leader. Inside you will read about... ✓ Hirohito Takes the Throne ✓ Invasion of China and Assassination Attempts ✓ The Rape of Nanking and Unit 731 ✓ Imperial Japan, an Axis Power ✓ Entering World War II ✓ Atomic Bombs: Hiroshima and Nagasaki And much more!
Download or read book Japan s Imperial House in the Postwar Era 1945 2019 written by Kenneth J. Ruoff and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-02-01 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With the ascension of a new emperor and the dawn of the Reiwa Era, Kenneth J. Ruoff has expanded upon and updated The People’s Emperor, his study of the monarchy’s role as a political, societal, and cultural institution in contemporary Japan. Many Japanese continue to define the nation’s identity through the imperial house, making it a window into Japan’s postwar history. Ruoff begins by examining the reform of the monarchy during the U.S. occupation and then turns to its evolution since the Japanese regained the power to shape it. To understand the monarchy’s function in contemporary Japan, the author analyzes issues such as the role of individual emperors in shaping the institution, the intersection of the monarchy with politics, the emperor’s and the nation’s responsibility for the war, nationalistic movements in support of the monarchy, and the remaking of the once-sacrosanct throne into a “people’s imperial house” embedded in the postwar culture of democracy. Finally, Ruoff examines recent developments, including the abdication of Emperor Akihito and the heir crisis, which have brought to the forefront the fragility of the imperial line under the current legal system, leading to calls for reform."
Download or read book Hirohito and His Times written by Toshiaki Kawahara and published by Kodansha Amer Incorporated. This book was released on 1990 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the life of the Japanese Emperor, discusses his changing role in Japanese politics, and includes reminiscences from close associates
Download or read book American Shogun written by Robert Harvey and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2007-03-22 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the mid-nineteenth century on, America and Japan were caught in an extraordinary political, military and economic duel. This clash was characterised by a cultural incompatibility that was to haunt the negotiations of their two leaders, Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur. Hirohito was a remarkable man. Diffident, uncharismatic and apparently obtuse, he survived as god-ruler of Japan for six decades through internal strife, war, defeat, occupation and economic victory. But Hirohito met his equal in MacArthur. Brash and domineering, MacArthur merited the honorary Japanese epithet shogun or 'army leader' for his almost single-handed six year rule over Japan. In this absorbing dual biography Robert Harvey traces their tense and complex relationship. His broad scope encompasses two great nations in war and peace - a momentous period of history which provides illuminating insight into American actions across the world today.
Download or read book FDR and His Contemporaries written by Cornelis A. van Minnen and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 1992 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hirohito and War written by Peter Wetzler and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Content Description #Includes bibliographical references and index.
