Waubonsee Community College

Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, Herbert P. Bix

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 689-784) and index

individual biography

portraitsplatesmapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Hirohito and the making of modern Japan

bibliography

48008991

Herbert P. Bix

In this biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers a look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. 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. 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. 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

The prince's education, 1901-1921. The boy, the family, and the Meiji legacies -- Cultivating an emperor -- Confronting the real world -- The politics of good intentions, 1922-1930. The regency and the crisis of Taisho democracy -- The new monarchy and the new nationalism -- A political monarch emerges -- His majesty's wars, 1931-1945. The Manchurian transformation -- Restoration and repression -- Holy war -- Stalemate and escalation -- Prologue to Pearl Harbor -- The ordeal of supreme command -- Delayed surrender -- The unexamined life, 1945-1989. A monarchy reinvented -- The Tokyo trial -- Salvaging the imperial mystique -- The quiet years and the legacies of Showa