Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

Dower describes the pathos of Japan's defeat and its difficult post-war journey to remake itself and its society - the backside of WWII in the Pacific. In the 1860's Emperor Meiji embarked upon a similar, but deliberate, journey. In this case, it was ignominiously thrust upon the Japanese. Dower uses a prodigious amount of detail and cultural insight. Deeply researched and well written, it's far ranging and often poignant as it captures the post-surrender chaos and struggles. It is also pragmatic and evenhanded.The opening chapters are a tour of a defeated nation. The Japanese, a once proud people, were utterly crushed by the Allies. In the war's waning days they were clearly on their last legs, and like a boxer staggered by an overwhelming opponent, they were carrying on the fight by sheer will. "In this all-consuming milieu, the immediate meaning of 'liberation' for most Japanese was not political but psychological. Surrender...liberated them from death. Month after month, they had prepared for the worst; then, abruptly, the tension was broken. In an almost literal sense they were given back their lives. Shock bordering on stupefaction was a normal response to the emperor's announcement, usually followed quickly by an overwhelming sense of relief. But that sense of relief all too often proved ephemeral. Exhaustion and despair followed quickly in its train - a state of psychic collapse so deep and widespread that...[t]he populace, it was said, had succumbed to the 'kyodatsu condition.'" (88-89)Our occupation was quintessentially American with a missionary zeal. "For all its uniqueness of time, place, and circumstance - all its peculiarly 'American' iconoclasm - the occupation was in this sense but a new manifestation of the old racial paternalism that historically accompanied the global expansion of the Western powers. Like their colonialist predecessors, the victors were imbued with a sense of manifest destiny. They spoke of being engaged in the mission of civilizing their subjects. They bore the burden (in their own eyes) of their race, creed, and culture. They swaggered, and were enviously free of self-doubt." (211-212). Dower includes a fascinating discussion of an interesting dilemma facing America: how to break away from the racist vilification of the Japanese by wartime propaganda and now show that the Japanese could measure up to sustaining a democratic form of government.For the most part this book is exactly as the title states: how Japan embraced defeat. There is precious little directly about how the US administered Japan. It is not devoid of it, however. There is fascinating insight on how and why MacArthur used the Emperor's position during the war and during the Occupation (see chapter 7, especially 282-283 and 286). In the days immediately following surrender, "An alien from another planet...might easily have concluded that Emperor Hirohito had ascended the throne in August 1945 just in time to end a terr

This book is an important and valid addition to the WWII genre. There are countless volumes on the war in the "Pacific Theatre", but considerably few on the impact of defeat that has essentially made Japan into what it is today, and this book is as good as any to begin that journey.I feel that some reviewers have been rather unfair about Dower's supposed bias, due in no small part to his having a Japanese-descent wife. However, in my opinion you would have to miss a major portion of this book in order to come to that conclusion.Dower, at no point in time, made ANY excuses for Japanese agression and the atrocities committed towards POWs and the civilians in their occupied lands. In fact, he laments again and again about how the Japanese eventually came to very conveniently remember their war-dead without actually remembering their crimes as well. He also clearly feels that the late Emperor Hirohito got "off the hook" way too easily, and should've borne a substantial portion of the responsibility for Japan's actions throughout the war.What some readers are uncomfortable with, I believe, is the fact that Dower has very meticulously analyzed the period of occupation by the Allies (more specifically, the Americans) following Japan's surrender. There are some of us who believe so strongly in the fallacy that the Allies could do no wrong that we simply do not want to confront the victors' hypocrisies and inconsistencies when they're pointed out to us.That is a dangerous and myopic viewpoint. Six decades after WWII, I would have hoped that modern readers would be enlightened enough to be able to discuss topics like that without being entirely driven by the "us versus them" mentality. In times of peacetime minimal propoganda, we should be able to thank Dower for bringing this important topic to light without screaming that he is "on the side of the Japs". He certainly is not. What some readers are uncomfortable with is that Dower is simply not on ANYONE'S side, per se, but was presenting us with a thorough and objective look at the Allied Occupation; its ups and downs, the subsequent Japanese reactions, and the impact their policies have made in shaping modern Japan. In fact, before I started this book, I too thought that it was going to be disappointingly biased towards the Japanese (based on some of the reviews I had read), but it turned out not to be the case at all. I commend John Dower for his far-sighted objectivity and unwavering committment to presenting a well-researched, highly readable and important work.

I rarely give books of this sort a perfect five-star rating, but I have to say that this is without a doubt, the best history I have ever read! Japanese or otherwise.Japan is a country which has foreign residents continually questioning why things are done here the way they are. Even though this is not a particular focus in Embracing Defeat, I found myself at countless places in the book pausing and saying to myself, "So, that's why!".It is a well written book. Histories tend to be dry and at times difficult to read, but this book is engrossing, and I actually found it hard to put down, - something I never thought I would hear myself say about a history book.I have heard criticisms that this book is far too centered on Tokyo and leaves out the rest of the country. But as people who know Japan will no doubt agree, where Tokyo goes, the rest of the country follows, so in this light, I find it to be an unwarranted criticism.This book is most likely on the reading list of most courses concerning contemporary Japan, but I feel that this book would appeal to anyone with an interest in Japan and why it is the way it is today.

John W. Dower's immense and impressive work, Embracing Defeat, Japan in the Wake of World War II, is well written, thoroughly researched and amazingly wide ranging in its examination of Japan. The book covers culture, politics, economics, philosophy and virtually all aspects of society from a varied range of sources from public documents and newspapers to secret reports, diaries, and poems, to name only a small fraction of the material. He presents many sides to any issue discussed, both the American perspective and the myriad of Japanese views. The delight of this book is watching it break down the image of a monolithic Japanese culture and instead present a complex tapestry of Japanese viewpoints and ideas that existed under the American occupation. It is a wonderful history of a hinge moment in Japan. Very well done.

Embracing Defeat is an authoritatively researched and beautifully written account of the U.S. occupation of Japan by a leading specialist on World War II, Japan and the U.S.-Japan relationship. This is a work that pulls no punches. Like no earlier study, it brings to the fore the ironies and contradictions of the era and casts fresh light on several of the great political issues of the era: the making of Japan's postwar constitution, U.S.-Japan relations, the reconstruction of economy and society, the role of Japan in the making of the U.S. order in Asia, and the role of MacArthur. It also offers the first cultural history of the occupation.It is particularly valuable in bringing out Japanese contributions to shaping occupation outcomes. Embracing Defeat is a pleasure to read.Dower takes the reader on a tour that reveals ambiguity, irony, fallibility, vitality, dynamism, messianic fervor, theatre of the absurd, the world turned upside down, fall and redemption, flotsam and jetsam on a sea of self-indugence, cynical opportunism, top-to-bottom corruption, delicacy and degeneration, despondency and dreams, tragedy and farce, boggling fatuity, and carnival, to mention a few of the polarities that run through this beautifully written and astute volume.