John W. Dower. Embracing Defeat. Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999. 676 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-393-04686-1. Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb Published on H-US-Japan (June, 2000) [Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein Dower's Japan in War and Peace: Selected Es‐ are those of the reviewer and not of his employer says (1993) is a corpus of previously published ar‐ or any other federal agency.] ticles informed by Dower's own brilliant introduc‐ John W. Dower, Elting E. Morison Professor of tory essay "The Useful War." In addition, he History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol‐ served as executive producer of the documentary ogy, received his doctorate in History and Far film entitled _Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima, Eastern Languages from Harvard University in which was an Academy Award nominee in 1988. 1972. Professor Dower's interests are concentrat‐ Because of these and other significant works [1], ed in modern Japanese history and his scholar‐ John Dower has significantly affected how Ameri‐ ship has centered on issues of war, peace, power, cans and other westerners view Japan and the Ja‐ and justice in Japan and in United States-Japanese panese as he considers topics such as racism and relations. He has published numerous articles and stereotypes as well as socioeconomic and political a dozen books, including War Without Mercy: factors. Race and Power in the Pacific War (1986), a Na‐ In a synthesis entitled The Clash (1997), histo‐ tional Book Critics Circle Award winner for Non‐ rian Walter LaFeber reported the cultural and fiction and the winner of the Ohira Masayoshi diplomatic relations between the United States Memorial Prize for distinguished Asian-Pacific and Japan from 1850 through the 1990s, while scholarship. His book Empire and Aftermath: An Richard Frank in his recent book Downfall (1999) Analysis of the Life and Times of Yoshida Shigeru emphasized 1945 in his assessment of the ending (1979) focuses on that Japanese diplomat and of Japanese Empire. Harvard historian Akira politician who became prime minister, and con‐ Iriye, who is concerned primarily with the prewar siders pre- and postwar Japan in terms of continu‐ era and World War II as well as its aftermath, has ities and dissipations. also written extensively about the occupation pe‐ riod.[2] Dower's Embracing Defeat: Japan in the H-Net Reviews Wake of World War II expands LaFeber's brief historical accounts, including my own writing. To analysis of the occupation period, beginning his put it a little differently, I have tried to capture a detailed assessment at the point Frank ends, and sense of what it meant to start over in a ruined he amplifies Iriye's writings. The clarity of pur‐ world by recovering the voices of the peoples at pose, writing style, remarkable factual detail and all levels of society. World War II did not really documentation, and insightful analysis are among end for the Japanese until 1952, and the years of the reasons that Dower's Embracing Defeat has war, defeat, and occupation left an indelible mark quickly become the definitive, landmark history on those who lived through them. No matter how of the transformation of Japanese society under affluent the country later became, these remained American occupation after World War II, and why the touchstone years for thinking about national he is the 1999 National Book Award winner for identity and personal values" (p. 25). He also non-fiction and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner for states that "I myself fnd the concrete details and General non-fiction for this distinguished work. textures of this extraordinary experience of a Readers will be pleased to learn that Embracing whole country starting over absorbing, but they Defeat will be published in a paperback edition in do not strike me as alien, exotic, or even mainly August 2000. instructive as an episode in the history of Japan or In his monumental and original War Without U.S.-Japanese relations. On the contrary, what is Mercy, Dower presents an analysis of the Pacific most compelling from my own perspective is that Theater of World War II by examining the racist defeat and occupation forced Japanese in every stereotypes which often dominated American and walk of life to struggle in exceptionally naked Japanese views of one another. He employs both ways, with the most fundamental of life's issues -- Japanese-based and United States-based sources, and that they responded in recognizably human, including propaganda flms, songs, colloquial ex‐ fallible, and often contradictory ways that can tell pressions, and cartoons, as well as traditional, re‐ us a great deal about ourselves and our world in cently declassified, archival materials in this elo‐ general" (p. 29). The introduction surveys the peri‐ quent history of anti-Western attitudes in Japan od from Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in and anti-Japanese attitudes in America. Dower 1853 through the end of the American occupation chronicles the six-year period from the shattering of Japan in 1952. defeat of the Japanese Empire and the material Part I: "Victor and Vanquished" begins with and psychological impacts that affected every lev‐ Emperor Hirohito's speech of capitulation on 15 el of society -- from peasant farmers, former sol‐ August 1945 exhorting his countrymen to "endure diers, politicians, and emperor, through wartime the unendurable." Dower takes the reader occupation and control, to the Korean War and through euphemistic versus unconditional sur‐ the re-emergence of the postwar nation. render, the destruction of documents, the signing In the introduction, which surveys the period of the formal instrument of surrender on 2 Sep‐ from Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in 1853 tember, and quantifying defeat. The sobering sta‐ through the end of the American occupation of tistics are that there were more than 2.7 million Japan in 1952, Dower argues that "I have tried to Japanese casualties among a population of 74 mil‐ convey 'from within' some sense of the Japanese lion, 66 major cities were essentially destroyed, experience of defeat by focusing on social and cul‐ nine million were homeless, and 6.5 million Japa‐ tural developments as well as on that most elusive nese had been stranded in Southeast and East phenomena, 'popular consciousness' -- departing, Asia (China, in the main), Siberia, and in the Pacif‐ in the process, from the approach taken in most ic. 2 H-Net Reviews The stage for a precarious democratic "revo‐ tion. MacArthur is characterized as a charismatic, lution from above," the processes of demilitariza‐ "blue-eyed shogun, paternalistic military dictator, tion and democratization under General Douglas grandiloquent but excruciatingly sincere Kabuki MacArthur as Supreme Commander, and the ad‐ hero" who was "indisputable overlord," and seen vent of the International Military Tribunal for the by the Japanese as a "living savior" with Buddha- Far East, e.g. the Tokyo Tribunal or war crimes tri‐ like compassion (p. 203, 229). Dower reminds us als, are recounted. Defeating the European Axis that in this neocolonial environment, the victors powers was the frst order of business for the Al‐ served as viceroys and that the most redundant lies, which would provide only a general model phrase the Japanese encountered may have been for the occupation of Japan. Reforms began with "By Order of the Occupation Forces." The replace‐ the destruction of sacrosanct traditional ways in‐ ment of Joseph Grew by Dean Acheson as Under‐ cluding the abolishment of state Shinto on 15 De‐ secretary of State, the character of "the China cember 1945. crowd," and the American civilians and elite on In part II, "Transcending Despair," Dower ex‐ MacArthur's staff who disdained Asian specialists amines the various cultural forms that arose after -- especially the "old Japan hands" and their cul‐ the war, in spite of the physical hardships the Ja‐ turalist approach -- are documented. The advent panese endured in the immediate postwar period. of radicalism, liberalism, Marxism, and Commu‐ Malnutrition (including protein deficiency and an nism among components of the Japanese popula‐ adult average intake of only one-third to one- tion is also assessed. MacArthur himself was em‐ quarter of the recommended 2200 calories per braced and showered with gifts and praise by the diem), diseases, and psychological and social col‐ Japanese, but the old guard at his GHQ (General lapse (crowding, alcoholism, robbery, serial mur‐ Headquarters) reluctantly went along with his re‐ ders, social disorder, economic inflation, looting, formist agenda which included gender quality, and the Black Market) are reviewed. Dower re‐ trade unions, and educational innovations. marks that "decadence itself emerged as a Dower also reports that many words and provocative challenge to old orthodoxies" (p. 120). phrases associated with the democratic process The marginalization of groups (especially "third- and reformation were borrowed directly >from country people," e.g. Taiwanese and Koreans); English. In addition, we are informed that the "panpan" girls (prostitutes), smut, and strip shows election of 1946 included 2,770 candidates (95 per‐ to "service the conqueror"; and Black Market en‐ cent of whom had never before held public office) trepreneurship and gang control are documented. representing 363 political parties. At the same Of particular interest is that although paper time, there were disorderly minorities, protest was in critical supply until 1951, there were rallies, an attempted general labor strike (1 Febru‐ 16,500 different newspaper titles published be‐ ary 1947), and the "emergence of a virulently anti‐ tween 1945 and 1949 in addition to more than communist democratization movement" (p. 272). 45,000 books. Bestsellers during this period in‐ Part IV: "Democracies" examines the complex‐ cluded guides to English conversation, poetry, Na‐ ities of implementing a new constitution in a con‐ gai Takahashi's moving The Bells of Nagasaki [3], quered country.