Scan barcode
A review by lauraellis
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix
4.0
The author's thesis is that Emperor Hirohito was not a traditional "constitutional monarch" in the European sense of the meaning, that he did not sit powerlessly and passively by while his ministers made all the decisions, until after Nagasaki he stepped forward and suddenly, somehow, exercised his will to bring peace. Instead, the author persuasively makes the case that Hirohito exercised power from the time he assumed the throne, while careful never to publicly be seen to do so. According to Bix, the emperor was particularly supportive of the move to expand the Japanese empire. While he argues that Hirohito was not always in control of his military, and sometimes accepted as fait accompli events that he had not ordered -- if they were successful, he was capable of imposing his will if the results were not successful.
I learned a great deal from this book, although some times the details could be difficult to follow (and I wish that Bix had included more about what the Japanese people did and felt). I did not always agree with Bix's conclusions. For example, he characterized Roosevelt as Hitler's "most implacable enemy." I think history awards that title to Churchill -- certainly I do. Also, Bix posits that the stereotype of the heartless and cruel Japanese has never been entirely forgotten because of the atrocities and mistreatment of prisoners of war. As a member of the post-baby boomer generation, I have never viewed the present-day Japanese (or the Germans) in that way. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the bombing of the Japanese cities, with the deaths of thousands and thousands of non-combatants, however much they contributed to the ending of the war and however necessary they might have been, also caused widespread suffering and death. As a country and as a people, the United States still has not yet fully come to grips with its own actions in enslaving African Americans and killing and displacing Native Americans, and although we have paid reparations and formally apologized, we also say little about our internment of Japanese Americans, so it is difficult to fault Japan for failing to fully come to grips with its actions in World War II (though it is very easy to understand why the Asian nations that were occupied by Japan might have difficulty letting that go). I believe people change, and the Japanese of today bear as much -- or as little -- responsibility for the actions of prior generations as Americans do for theirs.
Bix has convinced me, however, that Hirohito does bear great responsibility for World War II and for the occupation of China, Korea, and other Asian countries that preceded it.
I learned a great deal from this book, although some times the details could be difficult to follow (and I wish that Bix had included more about what the Japanese people did and felt). I did not always agree with Bix's conclusions. For example, he characterized Roosevelt as Hitler's "most implacable enemy." I think history awards that title to Churchill -- certainly I do. Also, Bix posits that the stereotype of the heartless and cruel Japanese has never been entirely forgotten because of the atrocities and mistreatment of prisoners of war. As a member of the post-baby boomer generation, I have never viewed the present-day Japanese (or the Germans) in that way. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the bombing of the Japanese cities, with the deaths of thousands and thousands of non-combatants, however much they contributed to the ending of the war and however necessary they might have been, also caused widespread suffering and death. As a country and as a people, the United States still has not yet fully come to grips with its own actions in enslaving African Americans and killing and displacing Native Americans, and although we have paid reparations and formally apologized, we also say little about our internment of Japanese Americans, so it is difficult to fault Japan for failing to fully come to grips with its actions in World War II (though it is very easy to understand why the Asian nations that were occupied by Japan might have difficulty letting that go). I believe people change, and the Japanese of today bear as much -- or as little -- responsibility for the actions of prior generations as Americans do for theirs.
Bix has convinced me, however, that Hirohito does bear great responsibility for World War II and for the occupation of China, Korea, and other Asian countries that preceded it.