Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays [Hardcover]

John W. Dower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1994

This is a study of Japanese affairs, highlighting the resemblences between wartime, postwar and contemporary Japan. The author argues persuasively that the origins of many of the institutions responsible for Japan's dominant position in today's global economy, derive from the rapid military industrialization of the 1930s, and not from the post-war occupation period, as is often assumed. The opening essay, "The Useful War" sets the tone for the volume by showing how much of Japan's post-war political and economic structure was pre-figured in the country's wartime organization. Dower goes beyond the stereotypes of Japan as a nation of "fanatical warriors" and "economic miracle workers", to examine the tensions within Japanese society that have shaped its outlook toward the rest of Asia and the West. The essays also discuss the methods Japan and the West used to "demonize" each other during the war, which still influence their relations today.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Japan's racism, rooted in pride in the purity and homogeneity of its society, has remained constant from the feudal era to the present and is potentially dangerous to its relations with the rest of the world, according to Dower, who is Henry Luce professor of international cooperation and global stability at MIT. In this collection of powerful, evenhanded and crystalline essays, he tracks manifestations of racism in the nation's mythology, cinema, wartime behavior and adaptations to the postwar occupation. He analyzes the nature of Japanese capitalism, the nation's emergence as a world power, its politicians and its government. Dower examines the Japanese sense of superiority to the mongrelized U.S. population as a factor in trade problems, but he also argues that the U.S.'s own sense of superiority and enduring contempt for the "little yellow devils" still underly our fear and awe of the Japanese. He punctures manipulated postwar myths in both Japan and the U.S. of a frail, kindly Hirohito and reviews General Douglas MacArthur's dealings with him. Dower warns of new dangers: that Japan's extreme conservatives will continue to "sanitize the 'holy war' waged in the emperor's name," that they will remilitarize and that "the cult of Japanese uniqueness can stimulate highly irrational nationalistic emotions." Illustrations.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Historian Dower, whose classic study, War Without Mercy ( LJ 4/1/86), examined racial attitudes in the United States and Japan during World War II, here offers a collection of 11 essays on the wartime and postwar periods. Written over the past 15 years, the essays cover a wide range of subjects, from Japan's wartime cinema and atomic bomb research to the effects of the war and the U.S. occupation on Japanese postwar political and economic development. Of particular interest are several essays that utilize materials drawn from popular culture (films, cartoons, colloquial expressions, etc.) to examine racial attitudes and stereotypes in both societies, past and present. Altogether, this collection is useful in providing a solid cross-section of contemporary scholarship on Japan by one of the leading academics in the field as well as for the intrinsic interest of its subject matter. Recommended for informed general readers.
- Scott Wright, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: New Pr; 1st edition (January 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565840674
• ISBN-13: 978-1565840676
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,910,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John W. Dower is professor emeritus of history at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His interests lie in modern Japanese history and U.S.-Japan relations. He is the author of several books, including Ways of Forgetting, War Without Mercy, Cultures of War, and Embracing Defeat, which received numerous honors (including the Pulitzer Prize).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A collection of papers on Japan before and after WWII, March 13, 2002

By 

Suckwoo Lee (Seoul, Seoul South Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays (Paperback)

John Dower is the outstanding figure in the field of cold war, especially in Japan. His Pulitzer awarded book, 'Embracing Defeat', could be regarded as the cream of his career. If you read it already, you don't need to pick up this, I think. This book is no more than a collection of essays. So you chould not expect any integrity among papers. You'd better select essay to your needs. Sure, the quality of essays is not bad.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit disappointing, March 3, 2004

By 

Paul Wiseman (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japan in War and Peace : Selected Essays (Hardcover)

John Dower's Embracing Defeat is one of the best history books I've ever read. This earlier essay collection, which covers some of the same territory, is a disappointment by contrast. Dower is always an insightful guide to modern Japanese culture and politics. Among other things, he makes an interesting comparison here between U.S. and Japanese wartime cinema; offers a moving assessment of Japan's Atomic Bomb art; and inveighs repeatedly and passionately against what he fears is a resurgence of racism in America and ultra-nationalism in Japan. The book feels dated, though. Dower wrote most of these essays at a time when Japan appeared to be overtaking the United States economically, fueling resentment in America and arrogance in Japan. Now that Japan has endured a decade of economic stagnation and the U.S. has reemerged as the engine of global growth, Dower's concerns seem overblown (though, to be fair, they were widely shared at the time - and may return one day). More troubling, he is hypersensitive and defensive about anything he sees as a slight against Japan. Dower labors to disprove the notion that the Japanese are robotic drones who can't think for themselves. He certainly shows that the conformist label is exaggerated and simplistic. But he sometimes strains to make his point. For example, Dower attempts to unearth signs of grassroots resistance to the militaristic rule that led Japan (and much of the world) to bloody disaster in the 1930s and `40s. He notes, for example, that police investigated more than 2,000 rumors in Tokyo between 1941 and 1945. I think my own workplace produces rumors at a faster pace than that. Given the magnitude of the militarists' folly and the agony they caused in Japan, it strikes me as staggering that no one seriously tried to stop them. A low-level whispering campaign, a few furtive communists scribbling anti-Emperor graffiti and some unhappy factory workers calling in sick just don't cut it.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, hard to follow, May 9, 2001

By 

Bryan MacKinnon (Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays (Paperback)

While the topics included within this book are facinating, I found the author's writing style very hard to follow. Each essay seemed a disjointed stream of facts just as if this was an early draft waiting to be pieced together.If I were to grade this academic's work, he'd get a C-.

What's most surprising is that the author's other book on a similar topic is "Embracing Defeat" which is a good read and I definitely recommend.