The Emperor's General [Large Print] [Hardcover]

James H. Webb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

1997. Jay Marsh, Wall Street millionaire and grand old man of the diplomatic corps, takes a sentimental journey to the scene of his first triumphs and agonies, Manila, where as a brash young captain during World War II he served as aide-de-camp and confidant to General Douglas MacArthur. Marsh sees beyond the glittery capital of today to the horrifying days of 1945. The retreating Japanese army had devastated everything in its wake.

The city was set ablaze and one hundred thousand innocents were slaughtered. Marsh was forced to leave behind his Filipino fiancee and accompany MacArthur to Japan. Now, as the senior statesman stands in the serene garden of the ambassador's residence, his mind reels back in time--.

In the final days of the war in the Pacific, the Phillippines are retaken by the Allies under the command of General MacArthur, paving the way for Japan's surrender. But for MacArthur, victory over Japan is only a stepping stone to greater glory: supreme rule over the conquered country. MacArthur enlists Captain Marsh to be his emissary to the imperial government, a mission that takes the junior officer into the shadow world of postwar Tokyo, and into a web of deceit as he discovers shocking truths about MacArthur the world was never meant to know.

Masterfully written and highly evocative, The Emperor's General is the story of MacArthur's bold and calculating transition from wartime general to "American Caesar," and of his enormous ego, his personal demons, and the glaring miscalculations he made in bargaining with the Japanese. And, in the person of narrator Jay Marsh, it is the all too human story of a young man's bitter coming of age-and of the conflicting demands of duty, honor, and love.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Despite popular sentiments that World War II was in fact a good war, there was some disagreement about that immediately following the conflict. After the Marshall Plan and the "democratization" of Japan, conspiracy mongers accused forces in the U.S. government of assisting our former enemies in rebuilding their economic powers at the expense of our national interest. At their worst, these suspicions aided the rise of McCarthyism; at their best, they give us snappy espionage novels such as James Webb's The Emperor's General, which speculates that Douglas MacArthur lost the peace by allowing Japan to regain its sphere of influence in the Pacific Rim.

This hypothesis is presented by the book's protagonist, Jay Marsh, an inexperienced captain serving as one of MacArthur's aides. Throughout the course of the novel, young Marsh suspects that the general is shielding Japan's imperial elite from war-crimes trials being undertaken by various military commissions. He soon sheds his naïveté, becoming both seduced and appalled by the Japanese-U.S. alliance of global hegemony. Webb avoids the Grishamesque hit-and-run action sequences that sacrifice the "reality" of many conspiratorial novels, making Marsh into MacArthur's doppelgänger, a character whose intense love of the East is entangled with a sense of compromised honor. The general's loss of the Philippines is matched with Marsh's betrayal of his Filipina fiancée, propelling all the characters towards their destiny. The fact that the U.S. secured its military objectives by protecting Japan's leaders should come as no surprise to the historically informed, but the all too human motivations that Webb gives to MacArthur's actions ought to keep the reader hooked to the last page. --John M. Anderson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Gen. Douglas MacArthur makes a provocative central character for a World War II novel, brash and swaggering, deeply complex in his contradictions. These qualities are exploited to animated theatrical effect by military-specialty author Webb (Fields of Fire). This is the story of MacArthur's actions at the end of the war in the Pacific in 1945, told from the point of view of Jay Marsh, a translator who worked on the general's staff as a young captain. Now a droll old man, a retired banker and ambassador, Marsh reconstructs his youthful days serving in the general's inner circle, his "royal court." MacArthur was by then appointed "Supreme Commander," a living caricature with his trademark sunglasses and corncob pipe, busy "making history" as he met with the defeated Japanese. Marsh, in love with an aristocratic Filipino woman, is torn between loyalty to his chief and to his own growth as an independently thinking man. In his reading, Dukes plays up the characterizations, giving MacArthur a deep, drawling snobbish lilt and assuming full-blown Japanese accents for his depictions of the deposed Asian military leaders. Despite these overblown flourishes, Webb's novel comes across highly convincing on tape, taut and compelling in its unfolding surprises and made realistic in its fine human detailing. Based on the Broadway hardcover. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 681 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786220376
• ISBN-13: 978-0786220373
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,919,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rivetting historical novel of MacArthur in postwar Japan., March 6, 2004

By 

Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emperor's General (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a ripping good historical novel about General MacArthur's leadership of the American occupation of Japan--the first time in over a thousand years that the "nation family" of Japan suffered defeat and conquest. The author tells the story from the perspective of one Jay Marsh, a young Japanese-speaking American captain and aide-de-camp to General MacArthur. Seen from Marsh's perspective, we see MacArthur from what seemed to me to be an authentic portrayal of a complicated man who was vain, brilliant, ambitious, and charismatic.

The essential theme of the novel (no spoilers here) is that in 1945 although MacArthur represented the victor and the Japanese were in fact utterly beaten and indeed devestated by war, the interaction between occupier and the Japanese power structure was complex. The Japanese ruling class, although forced to endure American-inspired democratic reforms, remained the ruling class, at least for a time. In particular, the novel shows how, in exchange for the Japanese establishment's cooperation for a remarkably tranquil and calm occupation, most of the truly culpable Japanese war criminals escaped prosecution. The infamous Rape of Nanking, in particular, largely went unpunished.

Although the novel is wonderful history, it never loses sight of its first mission--to entertain. The story is beautifully told, with compassion and humor, as we follow Captain Marsh through his love affairs with beautiful Phillipine and Japanese girls, and his interaction, friendships, and ultimately his outmaneuverings of key Japanese government figures. The most rivetting part of the novel, and its central story, is the trial and hanging of Japanese General Yamashita. Author Webb does an excellent job persuading the reader that this was in fact a travesty of justice in which MacArthur essentially made Yamashita a scapegoat for war crimes committed by others--others in the Japanese power establishment whom MacArthur was shielding from prosecution in exchange for the establishment's cooperation in the occupation and democratic reform process.

An unforgettable novel that I have read more than once, each time with added insight and enjoyment.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two great stories, intertwined., February 7, 2000

By 

Kevin Murphy (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emperor's General (Mass Market Paperback)

This book has two main stories. The first is the "inside story" of McArthur's reconstruction of Japan, as seen by a young aide. The tale told there is one of deception, betrayal and manipulation, where the "old order" in Japan emerges unscathed in the guise of the "new." The monsters that were responsible for the horros of Nanking and Manila are left untouched and an honorable man is hanged in their place.

The other story is the coming of age of the young aide; his love of a woman he cannot, in the end, have; and his inner turmoil as he watches -- and participates in -- the sham that is the General's New Japan.

Jay's story is made more interesting in contrast to the historical events. That his story manages to overshadow the politics of victory and occupation makes it all the more potent.

A great book, highly recommended.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The general who wished he were an emperor, December 3, 1999

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emperor's General (Hardcover)

In the Emperor's General, James Webb proves that he is as good at bringing real historical figures to life as he is in portraying the harsh life of combat from the eyes of fictional soldiers. The general in question is Douglas McArthur, great man and great ego, and the emperor is the emperor of Japan following WWII. McArthur was the military governor for the period of occupation and the history books tell us mostly that he was loved by the Japanese and brought them order, a new constitution and rights for women. What the history books (at least in schools) don't dwell on is the cost of those reforms and how they were achieved.

This book does, among other themes, concern itself with the settling of blame for the war and atrocities, the struggle of the emperor and his supporters to protect him from punishment or embarrassment, and the compromises tha McArthur made in order to achieve his ends - and his 'place in history'. The most startling premise of the book is that McArthur allowed the Japanese general who commaned the last troops to surrender in the Philipines, to become the scapegoat for the empreror's (and his friends and family's) sins. This figure, presented as a noble warrior who engaged in no atrocities and fought against all odds until ordered to surrender by the emperor, is tried and condemned to death - partly to satisfy McArthur's desire for someone to punish because of the rape of he Philipines and partly to shift blame from the emperial household.

Whatever one believes about the actual history involved, the picture drawn of McArthur and the other characters, is so believable and detailed, that one cannot but be moved by the story. The reader's sympathies are, at book's end, with the Japanese general and not with McArthur.

This is only scratching the surface of this book. There is much more to it. It is a full and rich experience that touches on many themes. It is a thought provoking novel that tells a complex story of interesting characters - some real and some fictional. Very enjoyable. I highly recommend it.