Hirohito And The Making Of Modern Japan

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“A startling work — awesomely ambitious, faultlessly researched, daring in its thesis, and profound in its implications.” — Business Week

“Magnificent. . . . everything a political biography should be.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch

This rich and powerful political biography is now given fresh relevance with a new introduction by the author that explores how Hirohito’s legacy persists in Japan to this day, and how US foreign policy in the region in the last ten years is informed by our troubled past with Japan and with Hirohito as a ruler specifically.

Trained since childhood to lead his nation as a living deity, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito cultivated the image of a reluctant, detached monarch, a façade which masked a fierce cunning and powerful ambition. Historian Herbert P. Bix has unearned hundreds of previously untapped documents including the unpublished letters and diaries of Hirohito’s royal court, tracing the key events of his sixty-three-year reign (1926 – 1989), and shedding light on his uniquely active yet self-effacing stewardship. Debunking the common image of Hirohito as a pawn in the hands of the military, Bix exposes the emperor’s personal involvement in every stage of the Pacific War. With rare insight, he shows how Hirohito avoided punishment for his nation’s defeat and how the Japanese people have struggled to come to terms with this dark chapter in their Japanese history.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning study reveals:

• A Deceiving Public Image: Uncover the façade of the reluctant monarch and meet the fiercely cunning and ambitious ruler who actively shaped his sixty-three-year reign.
• The Emperor’s War: Drawing from previously untapped letters and diaries, Bix exposes Hirohito’s personal involvement in every stage of the Pacific War, debunking the myth of him as a mere pawn.
• Post-War Reckoning: Explore the complex reasons why the emperor avoided punishment for his nation’s defeat and how the Japanese people have struggled with this controversial legacy.
• Modern Relevance: A new introduction analyzes how Hirohito’s story persists today and continues to inform US foreign policy in the region.