The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family [Paperback]

Sterling Seagrave (Author), Peggy Seagrave (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2001

In The Yamato Dynasty, Sterling Seagrave, who divulged the secrets of Mao Tse-tung and the ruthlessness of Chiang Kai-shek in the New York Times bestseller The Soong Dynasty, and his wife and longtime collaborator, Peggy, present the controversial, never-before-told history of the world’s longest-reigning dynasty–the Japanese imperial family–from its nineteenth-century origins through today. In the first collective biography of both the men and women of the Yamato Dynasty, the Seagraves take a controversial, comprehensive look at a family history that crosses two world wars, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American occupation of Japan, and Japan’s subsequent phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the Second World War. The Yamato Dynasty tells the story of the powerful men who have stood behind the screen–the shoguns and financiers controlling the throne from the shadows–taking readers behind the walls of privilege and tradition and revealing, in uncompromising detail, the true nature of a dynasty shrouded in myth and legend

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Most Westerners will know next to nothing of the Yamato, Japan's current imperial family. Neither do most Japanese. Much of Japan's modern history has been erased from postwar textbooks, and a whole generation has grown up knowing nothing of the Rape of Nanking, Pearl Harbor, the Second World War death camps, and countless other atrocities. All that remains are Hiroshima and Nagasaki, symbols of Japan's eternal innocence.

Sterling and Peggy Seagrave correct these falsehoods and expose the collusion and corruption that have been at the heart of the postwar Japanese economic miracle. And far from being a symbolic reminder of an ancient past, as the Japanese royal family is sometimes portrayed, the authors point out that it has been at the epicenter of venality and cruelty. Prince Chichibu, Emperor Hirohito's brother, turns out to have masterminded Golden Lily, the systematic looting of every country Japan occupied in the prewar years. Prince Yasuhiko was the brains behind the Rape of Nanking. And dear old Hirohito was so hands-on during the war that he could have halted Pearl Harbor. Moreover, the royal family was so comfortably in bed with the zaibatsu, the corporate ruling elite, that it made a fortune out of the war while the rest of the nation starved.

That none of this has come out before is only partly due to Japanese revisionism. We, too, have to share the blame. We had the evidence to try some of the imperial family as war criminals, but we chose not to. The Seagraves' book makes uncomfortable reading for all concerned. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on recently discovered sources, including imperial diaries, longtime Asian expert Sterling Seagrave (The Soong Dynasty) and his wife and collaborator, Peggy, connect, in this penetrating yet remorselessly bleak account, the personal histories of Japan's emperors, their wives and other members of the imperial family through five generations (from 1868--the year of the Meiji Restoration--to the present) to Japan's political and economic culture. The authors contend that the imperial system, with all its isolation and mystification, was a veil behind which plutocrats and militarists have always exerted unobtrusive control over Japanese society. Even today, they argue, Japan is "a one-class dictatorship by a financial elite evolved from the clan lords of previous centuries" who "rule by manipulation, intimidation and corruption." The Seagraves extensively study the long reign of Emperor Hirohito (who ruled from 1926 to 1989), assigning him and other members of the imperial family a measure of guilt for Japan's military aggression, wartime atrocities and looting of stupendous wealth from all corners of Asia. They criticize U.S. officials, especially MacArthur, for orchestrating a postwar exorcism by which only a handful of Japanese war criminals were punished, while Hirohito and his family were restored to power without having to account for their wartime depredations. The Seagraves see Japan's present as replicating its past, with an economy in ruins, the current imperials marginalized and behind-the-scenes manipulators still resisting reform. This book dramatically brings the imperial family--and those behind it--to life, offering readers an intriguing glimpse behind the long-maintained veil of secrecy. B&w photos, maps. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (August 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767904974
• ISBN-13: 978-0767904971
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #760,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sterling Seagrave (born 1937) is the author of eleven non-fiction histories and biographies, many co-authored with his wife, Peggy Seagrave. He grew up in Asia, in the remote Golden Triangle opium country on the Burma-China border, when Burma was still part of British India. He is in the 5th generation of American medical missionaries and teachers who came to Burma in 1832. He was in Burma when it was invaded by Japan in 1942, but with other family members were aboard the last refugee ship to India. His father, bestselling author of Burma Surgeon and Burma Surgeon Returns, was General Stilwell's chief medical officer in the CBI Theater. In 1947-8 when Britain gave Burma its independence, multiple civil wars broke out that continue today, and led to a military dictatorship still in power now. He was educated at a boarding school in India, then later in North and South America. In 1958, he dropped out of college and went to Cuba, age 21, as a stringer for the Chicago Daily News, instead helping Fidelistas in Pinar del Rio move ammunition and medicines brought by smuggling boats from the Florida Everglades. Since age 18, he has been a journalist at various newspapers including four years at The Washington Post. In 1965 he resigned to freelance throughout Asia for magazines including TIME, LIFE, Newsweek, Esquire, GEO, Atlantic, and Smithsonian. In 1979, he began writing investigative books, about the secret use of chemical and biological weapons, followed by a series of books on the powerful dynastic families of Asia, revealing their true histories disguised by propaganda and hagiographies. Death threats from Taiwan followed publication of The Soong Dynasty, a nationwide bestseller and top choice of the Book of the Month Club. The film option was purchased by George Roy Hill and Paul Newman. Next came books about Japan's looting of Asia in WW2, and how the treasure "vanished" when it was secretly recovered by the CIA to bribe foreign dictators and oligarchs. More death threats caused him to move to Europe in 1985 with Peggy Seagrave. They are now French citizens, writing their twelfth book. Many have been bestsellers in multiple languages, including Mongol. In France Seagrave has published three French editions in Paris, and has had long interviews in Paris Match, Nouvel Observateur, and Valeurs Actuel. They lived on a sailboat for ten years, then moved ashore to restore a 13th C stone wine-cave first built by the Knights Templar. It is surrounded by vineyards, with fine views of the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. They have spent 17 years restoring it, while continuing to research and write books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely sensational but don't read it as history, April 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family (Paperback)

"The Yamato Dynasty", Sterling & Peggy Seagrave's expose on the role of the Imperial Family in Japanese society since the Meiji Restoration is written in a style more resembling a political thriller than history. Sure, the mafia-like grip of Japan's all-powerful financial and business oligarchy over the nation's wealth and economy and the Imperial Family's collusion in willingly playing the part of a stooge in return for a lifetime of comfort and wealth with America's secret backing is a shocking eye opener for readers who know little of Japan's history. Reading the book helps us understand why the Japanese economy remains moribund and in a state of paralysis since the bubble burst in the early 90s. Genuine reform cannot take place because the oligarchs and political leaders pulling the strings will never act against their own interests. Neither will the bureaucracy which feeds from it. A truly damning appraisal of the state of Japan as a nation. Yet, I had difficulty accepting all of the Seagraves' account of it as history because of their highly controversial if not downright sensational style in telling it. If history were written and taught this way in school, you'd have no problems filling up the class. Don't get me wrong. The book makes for rivetting reading. It is absolutely unputdownable. Nevertheless, historians might react with horror at some of the gross oversimplication of the truth as told by the Seagraves. It is not difficult to imagine that that they might call into question the source and accuracy of some of the information used in the book. The Seagraves' monochrome/black and white portrayal of the wide cast of characters also turns history into faction, if not soap opera. I enjoyed 'The Yamato Dynasty" tremendously and would recommend it without hesitation to others. But I would be cautious in reading it as history. Better to judge it as a dramatised story of the Japanese imperial family in the post-Meiji era.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars about that dust jacket photo :), December 31, 2000

By 

Daniel Ford (the Warbird's Bookstore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family (Hardcover)

There was a quarrel in these reviews about the gentleman shown on the dust jacket of Yamato Dynasty, with one reviewer claiming it was not Hirohito but the former "boy emperor," later Emperor Pu Yi of Manchukuo (best known as the hero of the film The Last Emperor).

Well, I just now picked up a copy of Kempeitai by the British author Ramond Lamont-Brown, and the identical photograph (in black & white) appears on page 59, and captioned "His Imperial Majesty, Pu Yi, Emperor of China, 1908-12"

Of course, Lamont-Brown could be mistaken, but I am inclined to think that it was the publishers of Yamato Dynasty who made the howler. After all, the photo doesn't even look like Hirohito as an adult.

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read for conspiracy buffs, September 4, 2000

By 

Daniel Ford (at danford dot net) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family (Hardcover)

The Washington Post called this book "laughably ignorant," but it's a delightful read. Conspiracy buffs will love it, especially those who believe in a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy of Republicans bent on twisting history to their own money-grubbing advantage.

The history of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa emperors up to 1945 isn't bad, as opposed what follows. The Seagraves have a knack for making individuals and situations come alive. They also have a knack for getting things wrong: MacArthur escaped from Corregidor by PT boat, not submarine; Japan had army and navy air forces, not a distinct "Japanese Air Force"; the great fire raid on Tokyo featured incendiary bombs, not napalm, and it killed about half the 200,000 cited by the Seagraves; in 1948 Edward Lansdale was a major, not a general....

More ominously, for a book that purports to give the inside scoop on the Emperor System, the Seagraves don't read Japanese and rarely if ever had translations made. For the first half of the book, I read the copious notes along with the text, and found no instance in which the Seagraves refer to a Japanese text. I can't be sure of this because I gave up this practice when I realized that the really interesting stuff was never supported by a source I knew and trusted.

Golden Lily, for example: as the Seagraves tell the story, Japan looted the nations it conquered, hid the treasure in caves in caves and sunken ships, and used it to enrich the emperor, bribe MacArthur and Herbert Hoover, finance the country's postwar expansion, and fund the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Evidently the Seagraves came across some (uncited) informant, then spun a book around this germ of a story, using whatever English-language sources they could find.

Read it by all means, but don't take it too seriously.