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Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II Paperback – Illustrated, June 17, 2000

by John W. Dower (Author)

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Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the 1999 National Book Award for Nonfiction, finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, Embracing Defeat is John W. Dower's brilliant examination of Japan in the immediate, shattering aftermath of World War II.

Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources and illustrated with dozens of astonishing documentary photographs, Embracing Defeat is the fullest and most important history of the more than six years of American occupation, which affected every level of Japanese society, often in ways neither side could anticipate. Dower, whom Stephen E. Ambrose has called "America's foremost historian of the Second World War in the Pacific," gives us the rich and turbulent interplay between West and East, the victor and the vanquished, in a way never before attempted, from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes and fears of men and women in every walk of life. Already regarded as the benchmark in its field, Embracing Defeat is a work of colossal scholarship and history of the very first order. John W. Dower is the Elting E. Morison Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for War Without Mercy. 75 illustrations and map

Print length

688 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

June 17, 2000
Dimensions

6.1 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393320278
ISBN-13

978-0393320275
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Extraordinarily illuminating.... Dower has deftly mixed history from the 'bottom up' and the 'top down' to produce what is surely the most significant work to date on the postwar era in Japan."
― Jacob Heilbrunn, Wall Street Journal

"Masterly.... A penetrating analysis of Japan in the aftermath of defeat.... A profound and moving book, the best history ever written of Japan and its relations to the United States after the Second World War."
― Akira Iriye, Harvard University, Boston Sunday Globe

"Richly detailed and provocative.... For anyone who knows modern Japan, it is an endlessly fascinating explanation of why things work as they do.... A marvelous piece of reporting and analysis."
― T.R. Reid, Washington Post

"With Embracing Defeat, [Dower] confirms his place as this country's leading chronicler of the Pacific war."
― Janice P. Nimura, Chicago Tribune

"[A] superb history of Japan's occupation.... Dower brilliantly captures the louche?, squalid, but extraordinary dynamic mood of the postwar years. His interest is not just in the politics, but also in literature, the movies, and popular songs."
― Ian Buruma, New York Review of Books

"Without question, Dower is America's foremost historian of the Second World War in the Pacific.... A wonderful work of history.... I learned more than I ever would have thought possible."
― Stephen Ambrose

About the Author

John W. Dower is the author of Embracing Defeat, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; War without Mercy, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Cultures of War. He is professor emeritus of history at MIT. In addition to authoring many books and articles about Japan and the United States in war and peace, he is a founder and codirector of the online “Visualizing Cultures” project established at MIT in 2002 and dedicated to the presentation of image-driven scholarship on East Asia in the modern world. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Product details

Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Illustrated edition (June 17, 2000)
Language : English
Paperback : 688 pages
ISBN-10 : 0393320278
ISBN-13 : 978-0393320275
Item Weight : 1.79 pounds
Dimensions : 6.1 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #79,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #112 in Japanese History (Books)
- #343 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
- #740 in World War II History (Books)

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Top reviews from the United States

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RoboGriffeyTop Contributor: Harry Potter

A very good book, on a very unexplored period

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2020

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Ugh! This book is such a mixed blessing. It offers a ton of detailed info into post war Japan. How life was when the war ended. How it was through the American Occupation. And how the Nation moved from despair to an actual Democratic Economic Powerhouse.

Pro's; It gives a lot of detail into slices of life of the period. Things like just how daunting and horrific the repatriation of Japanese citizens from the points of their fallen empire was. How many never made it home from the USSR or China. Some good data and stories.

Con's; Just one, but it's a bad one that clouds the entirety of the rest of the book. The Author is an Anti-American Academic who finds modern fault in US Actions or decisions taken in the time period, without respect to the context. His opening foreward reads like a History Undergrads best attempt to emulate the abomination of Howard Zinn. The authors underlying "War Bad" "White People Bad" "Americans = Colonialists" etc quickly gets on your nerves. Especially if you have any prior understanding of the period and realize how much he is simply inserting his modern opinions into historical events.

11 people found this helpful

In parts excellent, in other quite weak

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2018

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This is a solid book to understand what happened in Japan In The years immediately after WWII.

On the American administration and the Japanese government and the post-war occupation strategy, its excellent. Alos, the analysis of critical statistics of economic production and hunger are also enlightening

I found, however, too much emphasis on the cartoons and poems of that time period, and not a litany of interviews of people who lived through it.

Contemporary writers sometimes reflect a national mood, but often do not.

I would trusted more the recollections of scores of common people that experienced it.

In fact, insightful man in the street reflections (of which there have been many) about how Japanese felt about the war years and the years immediately after (particularly knowledge of atrocities and how it effected people’s National self view) were rather weak.

16 people found this helpful

After reading this book, I can understand why it won a Pulitzer Prize!

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2016

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After reading this book, I can understand why it won a Pulitzer Prize! However, it's not a quick breezy read. I felt like I'd just completed a graduate level course in postwar Japanese history. My father is a WWII infantry combat veteran and my Mother's first husband was an Army Air Force pilot killed in action during the war. When I was growing up, my father wouldn't have been caught dead with either a German or Japanese car in his driveway! I can remember having the book, "The Art of Japanese Management" as assigned reading, during one of my college business courses. At the time, I wondered, how in less that 30 years, the Japanese went from utter defeat and destruction to "required reading" by American students! Take the time to read this book and you'll learn how all that happened....and more. Oh, and as for the car in my dad's driveway....at 94, he just bough a new "Nissan" Rogue.

34 people found this helpful

Never lose a war.

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2019

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This book was quite a picture of occupied Japan. One of the lessons to be learned was that if you start a war and then lose the conflict, you can assuredly expect hard times at the hands of the victors. As military occupations go, the Japanese were quite lucky that a benevolent adversary was the occupier of their country. Yes, they had a few rough years after the surrender, but the United States had no interest in establishing hegemony over Japan, or ruling it in perpetuity. The ambitious goal was a Japan with a representative government and a sovereign people. Considering the brutality and criminal acts perpetrated by the Japanese military on countries they invaded and conquered, the American occupation was a good thing for them. MacArthur, as supreme allied commander, exercised unquestioned authority over Japan, it's people, government and emperor. His power was used however, to create a more stable, accountable and representative government for the Japanese people, something they'd never had before. That was the gist of this book.

7 people found this helpful

Wonderful Overview of Occupied and Post-WWII Japan

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2017

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The fact that there is so much to cover after Japan surrendered to the US is both surprising and unsurprising. Unsurprising because many eras have been extremely well researched. Surprising, because so much changed for Japan in such a short time, and it is all quite interesting.

Dower does an excellent job of explaining the thoughts of all sides (and taking to task the stupidities that some people took), and also telling us why people thought of doing these things. He starts with the utter devastation of WWII, explains the economics of the early years and the enormous want right after surrender. People took advantage of the situation, and many felt despair. Dower covers culture, the occupation's goals and thoughts, the "justice" that was imposed, and finally the boom from the Korean War.

Dower always keeps a keen eye on explaining things in a way that does not ascribe some special "Japaneseness/Orientalism" that is alien to the rest of the world. This is for the better, as explaining things through "Japaneseness/Orientalism" is hardly an explanation at all. The amazing results of Japan were done through specific circumstances and people being at the correct time to act.

Overall, I found the book to be what I wanted -- a great explanation of how Japan "embraced defeat" and started on the path to becoming the nation it is today. Dower clearly explains how this was done. The style is definitely academic, but I never found it dull, and Dower skewers views when they deserve to be skewered. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Japan.

11 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Marc

It is Brilliant in is detail if you like history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2017

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Many books have been written about the allied occupation of Germany at the end of WW2 , I have got and read a few of of them , and life was undoubtedly harsh during those times. This is the fist book that I have come across that is purely to do with the American occupation of Japan at the end of the Pacific War. It is Brilliant in is detail if you like history , geography ,and a fair amount of facts and figures. Further , it has good deal of eye witness accounts that give it a human dimension. I won't give any details , if modern history is your thing , read for yourself. Enjoy.

3 people found this helpful

Dr. R. Brandon

The Definitive Book on the Cultural and Political Landscape of Occupied Japan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2008

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John Dower won the Pulitzer Prize and the 1999 National Book Award for non-fiction in America for this book so you do not need me to tell you that this is a magnificent work. Nevertheless, it may be useful to review what you will find in the book and what is not covered. This book concerns itself with the cultural and political landscape of Japan from 1945 to 1952. It does not deal with any military action or describe the devastated cities or the scenes to be found in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. 'Kyodatsu', or the state of exhaustion and despair in the country after defeat is well described and also the widespread shame, and feelings of betrayal of the people by the military government. The very rapid flowering of books, magazines and cinema under the new liberal rule of the Americans and the emergence of junk magazines as well as high quality literature and re-emergence of left-wing writers is treated in detail. The ironic slow re-imposition of censorship by the Americans as the Cold War gets under way and the growing disenchantment with occupation is fascinating. Much space is given to the reasons and methodology of saving Emperor Hirohito and his exclusion from the Tokyo War Trials.
The analysis of the opposing roles of the Americans under General MacArthur and the Japanese Government in the drafting and adoption by the government of the new 'non-belligerent' liberal constitution is most interesting and reflect upon the current world situation.
This is a dense and hugely well researched book that owes a lot to Dower's knowledge of the Japanese language and will well reward the reader's efforts.

11 people found this helpful

SJ

Masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2013

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As a resident of Japan over the past 12 years, I have been meaning to read this book for a long time and I am delighted I finally got around to it. Over the years there have been many aspects of Japanese ideas and opinions on this most sensitive of subjects which I didn`t understand. Many of these issues remain current to this day.

All of my questions and many more are comprehensively answered by Mr Dower`s painstaking and thoroughly researched work. I knew the US influence on post-war Japan was strong, but quite how strong, pervasive and longlasting (for good and ill) is staggering. Mr Dower has written a gripping and human account of a tumultous period of history.

5 people found this helpful

Elsa, Upper Graig

Embracing Defeat, Japan in the wake of World War 2

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a very difficult book to read, as it goes into the psyche of the Japanese and their reason for entering the second world war. I was interested in the book, having been captive as a child, with my mother, for 4 years In a Japanese concentration camp on Java, Indonesia. I found it interesting to read about the US efforts to bring the Japanese to accept an 'honourable' defeat

4 people found this helpful

Jo Hatfield

My daughter loved it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

Bought as a gift. My daughter loved it.

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