Friday, February 9, 2018

John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat ****

It might seem odd that I bought this book about "Japan in the Wake of World War II" from the bookshop at Pearl Harbor, but it was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner sitting alongside what seemed like mostly jingoistic tourist bait. I'm also interested in the subject of forming new societies after violent overthrows, such as in Ten Days that Shook the World and Red Star Over China.

Embracing Defeat covers the American occupation of Japan from August 1945 to April 1952, mostly from the Japanese point of view. It is arranged thematically rather than chronologically, with major sections about Japanese popular culture, the promulgation of its new constitution, and the Tokyo war crimes trials. Dower is able to show how the Japanese felt about the major events and to provide clear analysis, so I felt like I got a good sense for the time and place even though I wasn't familiar with most of the incidents he described.

The main message I will remember is that many consequences of the occupation flowed from General MacArthur's single decision to retain the emperor. That decision dictated the shape of the constitution, who got tried as war criminals, and how far the Americans allowed indigenous social movements to go. In the latter half of the occupation, Cold War considerations started to take precedence.

The book didn't cover economic issues very thoroughly because Dower has apparently covered this subject elsewhere.

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