Easton Press, Herbert P. Bix "Hirohito: And The Making of Modern Japan" Leather Bound Limited Collector's Edition [Sealed]

"This is one of the most important books ever written on World War II in the Pacific." -- Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

Easton Press, Norwalk CT. 2002. Herbert P. Bix "Hirohito:And The Making of Modern Japan". A Limited Collector's Edition, luxuriously bound in full genuine leather. This special edition is part of the World War II Leader series published by Easton Press. As New, sealed in the original shrink-wrap without any flaws. The condition is of the highest quality.


Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority.

Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different.

Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people.

The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past.

Until the very end of a career that embodied the conflicting aims of Japan's development as a nation, Hirohito remained preoccupied with politics and with his place in history. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan provides the definitive account of his rich life and legacy. Meticulously researched and utterly engaging, this book is proof that the history of twentieth-century Japan cannot be understood apart from the life of its most remarkable and enduring leader.



Reviews

"A historical bombshell. . . . Compelling. . . . The most controversial book yet on Japan's previous emperor." -- -- The Economist

"Bix succeeds . . . in demonstrating that the emperor shirked moral responsibility. . . . Offers fresh and well-documented insights." -- -- The Boston Globe

"Explosive. . . . Demolishes the stereotype of Japan's wartime emperor as a mousy and passive figurehead." -- -- Los Angeles Times

"Myth-shattering. . . . [T]his superb biography should jog loose a few suppressed memories."-- -- Newsweek International

"Professor Bix has created both a fascinating biography and a brilliant encapsulation of Japan's most difficult years."-- -- San Diego Union Tribune

"This book is a rare achievement: a work that turns established knowledge upside down. . . . Impressive." -- -- Foreign Affairs

"... a riveting portrait... In this excellent and incisive study, the emperor's new clothes are stunning to behold." -- John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II


"For those who want to understand history and modern events ... this is a must read." -- Lester C. Thurow, Lemelson Professor of Management and Economics, the Sloan School, M.I.T.



"This is the rare work of impeccable scholarship that will also be fascinating to the general reader. -- James Fallows, author of Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the

"This remarkable study is indispensable for the understanding of Japan and its place in Asia in the past century." -- Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, M.I.T. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


About the Author

Herbert P. Bix grew up in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and earned his Ph.D. in history and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University. For the past thirty years he has written extensively on modern and contemporary Japanese history in leading journals in the United States and Japan. He has taught Japanese history at a number of American and Japanese universities, most recently at Harvard, and is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.


From The Washington Post
""Herbert Bix's highly readable and massively researched biography is all but certain to shatter the old images. . . . Controversial and important."" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.