Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II | John W. Dower

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II | John W. Dower | Important Work and Fascinating Read

books:

Maria EDL City Hyperspace: A Scie... Embracing Defeat: ...

	Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II John W. Dower W.W. Norton & Co., 2000 - 680 pages average customer review:based on 65 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Non-Fiction, 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.

for more information click here

As good a history as one could hope for

Having been to Japan and about to return, I really appreciate the story that Dower tells. I agree with most of the positive reviews. However, I strongly disagree that it drags in the second half. The writing of the Japanese Constitution is fascinating in the back-and-forth between the American GHQ and Japanese government officials. The US initiators of the process got the conservative Japanese cabinet to accept some of the most progressive ideas of the twentieth century into this document. However, that the US insisted on preservation of the Emperor system is truly remarkable, not only for a victorious conquering and occupying force to do but especially because of the US attempt to absolve the not-very-innocent Emperor Hirohito of blame for Japanese aggression. The war crimes trial chapter foreshadows very up-to-date problems in holding military and government officials (e.g., Saddam or Milosevic) responsible for their actions.
Anyone who claims that Dower whitewashes the atrocities of the Japanese and is too sympathetic to them clearly did not read the book. By understanding the Japanese view of things, he shows how Japanese saw (and many still see) themselves as victims and barely recognized the truth of rampages, rapes, brutality, murder and destruction that they visited on millions of people, not just Americans but especially the Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, etc. As a good historian, Dower does not overlook the contradictions between what the Americans said and what they did - e.g., the authoritarian method of imposing democracy; the evocation of freedom while rigorously censoring speech and writing; and the condemnation of truly horrendous Japanese atrocities while disallowing any criticism of American fire-bombings and atomic-bombings that killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. Yet his tone of admiration for the Americans also comes through: for their idealism, for their ability to win over Japanese children with chewing gum, for the irresistible attraction of their culture.
I can appreciate that the writing is on a high level. Still, it is clear and direct.
But you can't fault "Embracing Defeat" for being scholarly. Everything is well footnoted. Those who find Dower biased should be made to document their own claims with the care that he used in putting this great book together.

for more information click here

Important Work and Fascinating Read

This is a well researched and fascinating look into how a culture that was completely controlled by an archaic belief system of national and racial identity, accepted total defeat and destruction and was skillfully if not neatly transformed by a foreign occupying culture. Author Dower has done a great service to world history with this richly detailed and deeply researched work that deals with culture, war, defeat, peace, politics, liberation, and just about every other human endeavor. Endlessly interesting and occasionally surprising, this book will change many readers who think that one nation cannot impose culture and a form of government on another in this day and age of so-called nation building. If you want to understand modern Japan you need to read this book. Working from a strategic level down and an individual level up, Dower weaves a beautiful mosaic of highly complicated transformation. Highly recommended for anyone interested in history, WWII, the Pacific War, Japan and especially the enlightened approach by the US government and military towards a former bitter enemy.
Steven Bustin, Author: Humble Heroes, How The USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII. Humble Heroes: How the USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII

for more information click here

Definitive View of Post War Japan

I have read a little less than a quarter of the book but I already appreciate the author's eye for historic detail coupled with his ability to humanize the events.

For one wishing to understand how Japan arose from the ashes of WWII overcoming gigantic psychological, fiscal and physical challenges this book is a must read. This book is an excellent study in the absolutely dramatic shock of a sudden and thorough change in a people forced to exchange their ancient culture for another over such a short period of time.

The Other becomes the Same

The surrender of Japan in September 2, 1945 ended World War II in Asia. In Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, Dower illustrates how the devastating loss and the subsequent six years of US military occupation impacted all layers the Japanese social order in ways that neither the US or Japan could have imagined. Moreover, another profound lesson learned in Embracing Defeat is Dower's rendering of the myriad of ways in which the Japanese approached reconstruction through Japans' embrace of defeat. Dower's examination is expansive, inclusive of top-level management of Emperor Hirohito fate to the most quotidian wishes and uncertainties of men and women from every strata of society. Another major contribution of Embracing Defeat was that it helps to explain Japan's historical amnesia and failure to reconcile with other countries in Asia in a way that places much of the responsibility on the Supreme Command for the Allied Power (SCAP). The effect of suminuri (blackening over) of certain militaristic parts of school textbooks effectively helped to erase much of Japan's wartime history from school education.

SCAP and the San Francisco treaty of 1951 abolished Japan's responsibility to pay back reparations to Asia. In fact, before that point, the Truman administration had told the Japanese to stop paying reparations and focus instead on their own reconstruction. So early on, it became clear to the Japanese that they were to forget the war, not only the militaristic ideologies that had led to it, but the actual devastation the war brought. This helps to explain why someone born after 1951 might not totally understand why some in Asia are still mistrustful of the Japanese. Dower examines this pivotal moment of Japanese, American, and world history -- a time when the new order clashed with the old one. It was a tumultuous time as Japan negotiated demilitarization with the rest of the world and was forced to effect radical reform. In the end, the Japanese were incorporated into the American sphere of influence -- a legacy that continues up to today.

In the US, revisionist history was exemplified in the Smithsonian debacle (1995). In the ongoing debates over how to remember the use of nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War, incarceration of Japanese Americans, the Tuskegee Airmen, Filipino servicemen (and their role in the liberation of their country) in public history and text (for details see Alperovitz, Hein and Seldon, Linenthal and Engelhardt, and Fujioka, etc.). Therefore, my assumption undertaking this literature review is that World War II and the Pacific Theater will benefit from a perspective based analysis, allowing for the identification and juxtaposition of nationalist narratives and resultant counter-narratives. Exploring the concepts of nationalism, national history and identity allows me to also take historical facts and examine how these facts are mobilized in public culture, history, and memory.

for more information click here