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Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan Paperback – September 4, 2001

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Herbert P. Bix (Author)
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 832 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 4, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060931302
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060931308
  • Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.4 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To many, Emperor Hirohito of Japan is remembered as a helpless figurehead during Japan's wars with China and the U.S. According to the received wisdom, he knew nothing of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor and had no power to stop atrocities like the Rape of Nanking. The emperor was the mild-mannered little man who traipsed with Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and who brought peace through surrender, certainly not "one of the most disingenuous persons ever to occupy the modern throne." Herbert Bix's charged political biography, however, argues that such accepted beliefs are myths and misrepresentations spun by both Japanese and Americans to protect the emperor from indictment. Since Hirohito's death in 1989, hundreds of documents, diaries, and scholarly studies have been published (and subsequently ignored) in Japan. Historian Bix used these sources to develop this shocking and nuanced portrait of a man far more shrewd, activist, and energetic than previously thought. Caught up in the fever of territorial expansion, Hirohito was the force that animated the war system, who, acting fully as a military leader and head of state, encouraged the belligerency of his people and pursued the war to its disastrous conclusion. To the very end, Hirohito refused to acknowledge any responsibility for his role in the death of millions as well as the brutalities inflicted by his forces in China, Korea, and the Philippines. In fact, he worked with none other than General MacArthur to select his fall guys and fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials--the emperor trying to protect the throne at all cost, the U.S. acting to ensure control of the Japanese population and the military by retaining Hirohito as a figurehead.

Not surprisingly, this hefty work of scholarship is making waves, as Americans and Japanese reconsider their roles in WWII and its aftermath. By placing Hirohito back in the center of the picture and puncturing the myths that surround him, Bix has effectively asked the Japanese to come out of their half-century repression of the past and face their wartime responsibility. Without doing so, he implies, the monarchy will forever impede the development of democracy. For those interested in Japan's wartime past and its influence on the present, this is fascinating, if lengthy, reading. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Bix penetrates decades of "public opacity" to offer a stunning portrait of the controversial Japanese emperor, "one of the most disingenuous persons ever to occupy the modern throne." Hirohito ascended to the Japanese throne in 1926 (at the age of 25) and ruled until his death in 1989. Bix closely examines his long, eventful reign, concentrating on the extent of the emperor's influence-which was greater than he admitted-over the political and military life of Japan during WWII. Bix's command of primary sources is apparent throughout the book, especially in the voluminous endnotes. From these sources, the author, a veteran scholar on modern Japanese history, draws a nuanced and balanced portrayal of an emperor who did not seek out war, but who demanded victories once war began and never took action to stop Japan's reckless descent into defeat. Bix makes Hirohito's later career intelligible by a careful exposition of the conflicting influences imposed on the emperor as a child: a passion for hard science coexisted with the myths of his own divine origin and destiny; he was taught benevolence along with belief in military supremacy. These influences unfolded as Hirohito was drawn into Japan's long conflict with China, its alliance with the fascist states of Europe, and its unwinnable war against the Allies. The dominant interest of the Showa ("radiant peace") Emperor, Bix convincingly explains, was to perpetuate the imperial system against more democratic opponents, no matter what the cost. Bix gives a meticulous account of his subject, delivers measured judgements about his accomplishments and failures, and reveals the subtlety of the emperor's character as a man who, while seemingly detached and remote, is in fact controlling events from behind the imperial screen. This is political biography at its most compelling. Agent, Susan Rabiner. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
5 star
28
4 star
32
3 star
13
2 star
9
1 star
13
See all 95 customer reviews
Professor Bix presents the story of Hirohito.
Marvin R. Weatherly
As a Japanese, I recommend this book, especially to Japanese readers.
12 Angry Men
This book presents problems on multiple levels.
Charles Miller

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 102 people found the following review helpful
Revealing, but may stretch its point.
By A Customer on July 16, 2001
Format: Hardcover
Herbert Bix's biography of Emperor Hirohito of Japan is an outstanding work, but it must be read with caution, a critical eye and an open mind. The work is permeated with a sense of Bix's righteous indignation at Hirohito's escape from censure for his part in Japan's role in China and in the Second World War and this seems to color his judgment when facts grow thin and motivations are evaluated.
What Bix contributes to the historical record regarding Hirohito, the Japanese military, and Japan's wars is important and revealing. In Western culture the term "emperor" connotes Rome with a sort of English royalty superimposed on it, a blend of the two greatest empires of the Western world. What gets lost in this merger is the memory that the emperor in the Roman system enjoyed a godhead and that the empire was partly a theocracy.
Theocracy is a missing element in most evaluations of the seemingly insane strategic decisions that governed Japan's entry into, atrocities during, and conduct of World War II. The blind faith that overrode rationality in upper echelons of the Army and Navy makes more sense in the light of the theocratic Shintoist emperor system. Bound up with a system of belief in a state headed by a living god, the racist inhumanity of Japanese atrocities becomes more understandable, but not justifiable. The willingness to "die for the Emperor" in banzai charges and kamikaze flights also becomes more clear.
But where Bix's work raises question marks is in his evaluation of Hirohito's role. While Bix has unearthed an emperor who definitely had a hand in government and the fatal decisions that propelled Japan into war, and bore unacknowledged responsibility for those decisions, he has not necessarily proven Hirohito to be their animating force.Read more ›
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34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Unseating the Divine.
By John Barry Kenyon on September 28, 2000
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This very detailed book needs your determined concentration. It is indeed a meticulously researched account of the life of Hirohito. Bix writes convincingly of the successful attempts, by Americans as well as by Japanese, to ensure Hirohito avoided a trial for war crimes and remained an anti-communist symbol of national unity. He also brings forward a mass of material to illustrate that the emperor was intimately involved in Japan's military policy in the 1930s and early 1940s. Although the general reader is hardly in a position to check first hand all Bix's primary source claims, it is the small details which stick in your mind: the special naval uniform Hirohito wore as Japan attacked the US navy in December 1941 and the private grief he expressed when Tojo was hanged in 1948. Bix has made it impossible for anyone seriously now to regard the emperor as a mere cypher or a victim of war Cabinet decisions. He needed a debunk in the English language and he has gotten precisely that.
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55 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Hirohito unveiled
By Marvin R. Weatherly on September 19, 2000
Format: Hardcover
In 1971 David Bergamini, a Rhodes Scholar, who was raised in the Orient and who speaks and reads Japanese, authored, "Japan's Imerial Conspiracy." Bergamini set forth a compelling argument in the role of the Japanese Emperor Hirohito in the planning and guidance of Japan's aggression before and during World War II. Japanese historians and western academia of the time savaged Bergamini; they closed their minds and buried the truth.
Professor Bix has researched and documented the truth of Bergamini's earlier thesis. He does not merely rewrite Bergamini's work but he puts flesh and meat on the bare bones of truth so denounced in 1971. Professor Bix presents the story of Hirohito. A story of deception extending from the Meiji Restoration to the creation of the plausible deniability doctrine of Emperor Hirohito. The Bix work sheds light as to why Japan has refused an apology to China and other of her victims of World War II; to apologize would be a grievious mortal affront to nation's sacred beliefs in the Enperor.
Publishers in Japan have refused to publish, "Hiohito: And the Making of Modern Japan." Japanese in many quarters, including the schools, still maintain the Rape-of-Nanking is but a vicious lie by those who are jealous of Japan. They cannot accept the truth that their Emperor would be a party to the atrocities committed against China and others.
To those readers who seek to fill-in the blank spaces of knowledge dealing with World War II, Professor Bix's work is a must-read. I would only hope that a like work will one day honestly document the excesses of the United States before and during World WarII.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Still leaves unanswered questions
By Joseph Rogash on November 4, 2001
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book is certainly the most detailed biography of Hirohito, yet I feel I still don't quite know the man. True, in the early chapters there is much information concerning how he was raised and educated in his youth and how his upbringing influenced his world view as an adult. However reputable biographies of such figures as Churchill, Hitler or Roosevelt use ample eyewitness accounts, documents, or even the writings or recorded conversations of their subjects to make the readers feel they understand their personality's. In this book, since Hirohito has written little on his personal views and since there are few available eyewitness accounts of his conversations or private behavior, one still leaves feeling they do not know or understand the man.
The author uses such documents as orders signed by Hirohito to back up many of his claims that the emperor played an active role in Japan's militaristic policy of aggression in Asia from 1931-1942. Yet from what little we can discern from his personality, he was indecisive, lacking in confidence and even timid. When one reads other accounts of Japan during this period, there is some possibility that Hirohito more or less aquiesced to the aggressive policies of his military rather than object due to the fear of being overthrown and replaced by his more warlike younger brother. Thus he may have been more of a cheerleader rather than a true leader or an initiator of policy. My point is this book does not provide sufficient evidence to decide either way.
Another weakness is the author is unclear and sketchy in describing how Japan devolved from a constitutional monarchy with a weak/infirm emperor in the early 1920s to a virtual military dictatorship by the 1930's.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

History helps understanding of Today

The book covers history of Japan from 1900 - 1952 in great detail. The court politics, shadow governing, power of emperor, relations with another nations - all helps understanding... Read more

Published 18 days ago by Szymon Walus
Hirohito --War Leader or Passive Bystander of the Militarists of WWII?...

I bought this book almost a decade ago and never sat down to read it until 2 months ago. It was a fascinating read about his upbringing and education and entrance into the... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Terry Jennrich
Thoroughly researched and well written

I spent a little over three years in Japan in the US Air Force 1969-1972. While I was there I read many books about Japanese history as well as some of their popular fiction... Read more

Published 2 months ago by David M
" Like most leftists

A very thorough and readable political biography. Bix's thesis is that Hirohito ruled as well as reigned, and that he was one of those directly responsible for Japan's aggression... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Jonathan Baum
Is it really?

Started reading it, but I would not finish it.

Published 3 months ago by Tomoko Murphy
Hirohito's coverup

Interesting topic but repititious, and poorly written. Too bad, for the issues raised are important.

Published 3 months ago by Donald
Five Stars

Great explanation of the "God" of Japan and his involvement in WWII

Published 6 months ago by TWS
Many parallels with 2014 America

Hirohito, and the Making of Modern Japan
Herbert P. Bix ©2000
(a Book Report by Ron Housley)

For decades I had been indoctrinated with the notion that... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Ron Housley
The Best

If you love reading something of value and significance. Then read this, a bit lengthy but the insight and depth makes it good for any rainy day

Published 10 months ago by Caleb Ahern
Review of Kindle edition.

I acquired the paperback version a few years ago. When I finally started to read it recently I decided that the Kindle would be easier to hold and read. Read more

Published 11 months ago by R. E. L.

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