Embracing Defeat [Paperback]

 

 

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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.

EMBRACING DEFEAT, John Dower, Norton, 1999, pp.676
September, 2010
According to Dower, the Pacific War didn't really terminate with the signing on the Missouri, August, 1945 but ended with the cessation of the American occupation in 1952. He briefly reviews the results of the Pacific War and moves on to the aftermath. The emphasis will be on Japan's occupation and little said on the other Asian territories, in fact, it is noted that the Americans took total ownership of the occupation in Japan with no regard for other Asian allies, including Western.
Hirohito's rescript, for the first time using broadcast, did not actually use the word 'surrender' and its reading left many Japanese feeling shame and guilt for their failure, especially after so many appeals for their loyalty and fighting-to-the death. Many of the ' million occupation troops would be appalled at the level of destruction of the homeland, touching every industry and person. Dower quotes staggering numbers (p. 45f) : Japanese deaths, wounded, those left in occupied countries (6.5 million), the number used by each country to assist in labour or law & order, a huge number of POW's held by the Soviets and the few eventual expats, and those returning from Manchukuo. Over the years as they returned to a subjugated and demolished Japan (5.1 million) , they were horrified also and many officers committed suicide. One cannot help but feel sympathy for the citizenry who had been suffering since the B-29 bombings and were themselves now near starvation and homeless. (The numbers of Japanese troops and their utilization by the new occupiers in each Asian country is well covered in Spector's, In the Ruins of Empire.)
We are so accustomed to hearing about the well-disciplined Imperial soldier, it is almost unbelievable to now learn of the unkempt appearance, involvement in brigandy, and the contempt they now received by the masses. At all levels of society, those who suffered from ill appearance and deformity, were now shunned: 'There existed no strong tradition of responsibility towards strangers, or of unrequited philanthropy, or of tolerance or even genuine sympathy towards those who suffered misfortune.' (p.61) The worst of this outcast group where the 123,510 orphaned or homeless children.
Of notable interest were the facts of 'kyodatsu conditioning' ' a collective exhaustion even before the end, coupled with the starvation of an entire population. Food shortages were due to natural causes but also the fact most shipping had been blasted out of the water. Japan was never able to sustain itself, one of the reasons it sought expansion into other territories. Dower included many pictures and one showing POW ' like starving soldiers even while the war was in progress, says how low the Japanese army had fallen. I found it difficult to believe such appalling conditions existed until 1949 and wonder what effect almost ' million US occupiers had on the available food supply! He spends a great deal of time on the social hardships, lawlessness, black market, gangs and wholesale theft of war supplies which should have been delivered to government stations.
The new expression 'kasutori culture' describes a condition which struck the population in 1946. We see only the Japanese success of today but are unaware of the upheavals preceding these successes. Given the kyodatsu conditioning, run away inflation, total loss of confidence in government seen as corrupt to the core, and lawbreakers becoming the successful, the kasutori culture took off ' 'self-indulgence' containing attractions as pulp fiction and commercialized sex. Of course the latter served the interest of the occupiers and Dower's statistics are amazing.
The author compares the Japanese people to the victors and this is quite important in understanding Japanese behaviour, but the conquerors had no such fore knowledge of the people they would govern to 1952. He shows how the Japanese people had little regard for anyone outside of the family whereas the Americans worked as a team and had regard for each other. They had been taught and it was engrained that there was no room for individualism ' everything they did was for the emperor and hence the state. One theory was held that per se the Japanese person was docile but putting on a uniform, he went berserk and brutal. He respected only authority and the uniform represented just that. Many felt that democracy could not be understood or grasped because the Japanese was too bound up with tradition. '...suggested that Japan was a nation but not really a society in that people were loyal to the state and knew how to behave as good family members but lacked a broader sense of public morality due to their weak sense of individuality.' (p. 249) The 'experts' were ignored and MacArthur forged ahead to make democracy work. This was a revolution from the top down ' never witnessed before and a democratic one at that! The author develops this concept through a number of chapters referring to MacArthur as the key ' the Japanese people worshiped him (just as the Filipinos did). It was a surprise to the advisers how readily and easily the people supported any initiative towards this goal. I found this process of democratizing every institution and anything which touched their daily lives, quite interesting and revealing.
There were conundrums however. The process of democratizing meant virtually anyone could run for office, including the communists who were experts in infiltrating and organizing trade unions. One method readily used to voice their new freedom was through marches, by the 1000's with hundreds of thousand participants. You will see that the May, 1946 marches soon tested democracy to the limits and left the occupiers in a quandary. Does democracy run rampant 100% all of the time for any occasion? When you set up the game rules and start a revolution from the top down, you also have to decide whether there are limits. MacArthur's test came none to soon.
Dower's main objective was to describe the process whereby the occupiers set out to democratize Japan and at the same time retain something of the Imperial institution, if nothing more than a symbolic position for the Emperor. The Emperor's continued existence as a unifying force with a people who once worship him as a god, had to be protected and hence protected from prosecution as a war criminal (The number of war criminals, Class A, B, C, Tokyo Tribunal, controversy surrounding not bringing Hirohito to trail are all covered in Chap. 15). This was one area which other scholars seemed to have glossed over ' why, when everyone knew he was the supreme commander of all the forces and was thoroughly involved in all decisions of war, why was he now protected from prosecution when all those around him were indicted. Dower explains this convincingly and I no longer am critical of MacArthur's decision
One of the most thorough subjects covered deals with the new constitution. Typically, Dower's coverage is well researched with many anecdotes and footnotes. He begins with the imperial court system, which must be scraped, and builds the case for this. He hammers away at two chief concerns and mandated inclusions: the Emperor must not be blamed for the war and his new authority is only constitutional; secondly, the new Japan will not have an army, navy or air force. It must also seem as if the new constitution came from the 'will of the people', their representatives and voice already in gov't. It was not an easy task given the stubbornness and inbred imperialistic views of the elite officials. Dower's presentation could be a future handbook on writing a new constitution for a foreign country, so complete is his product. Much of what is presented would be unknown to most casual readers of Japanese history. 'No modern nation ever has rested on a more alien constitution ' or a more unique wedding of monarchism, democratic idealism and pacifism....' (p. 347) An interesting challenge which could take a better part of a year, would be to compare the similarities and differences between the American and Japanese constitutions. Dower's comments would suffice for the Japanese study.
Dower doesn't shy away from controversial subjects even when the USA is criticised, and there was ample room for that. Here are a few subjects he touches on which indicate how arbitrary and hypocritical some victor's decisions were.
Japan was condemned during the trails for its aggression towards other countries. But is this not what Britain, the Dutch, French and Americans were doing, albeit without all-out force?
Tojo and six others were hanged and yet the Emperor was protected by the Americans.
Disarmament and elimination of an armed force was paramount for inclusion in the Constitution as ARTICLE 9 yet when the Americans entered the Korean War in 1950, they had no qualms of building, in fact insisting on, an armed Japanese force.
Democracy was number one on their list of reforms but they treated the citizens with a censorship so severe the Japanese were ignorant of world events, even the atomic bomb.
Most war criminals, the entire Unit 731 (Nanking) were left untouched or released because the Americans wanted their knowledge of chemical warfare and experiments on live humans.
The Americans forced their brand of economics on the gov't even after it was proven unsuccessful, and denied those principles which the Japanese wished to incorporate into their business. After 1952, the Japanese adopted those principles and became number 1 in economic development!
Historians are now seriously studying the American model of occupation and the effect it had on the people. Was it just, was it equitable, did it put into practice the principles of American democracy, did they overstay, and many such questions touching all... Read more ›

The penultimate book on 'sengo' - post (go) war (sen) Japan. Dower's in-depth, almost fanatic research and intimate knowledge is inimitable something only reserved for Pulitzer prize winners (which he won). Dower endeavors to show that the postwar Occupation was a lived JAPANESE experience where, historically, it's been presented and read through an American lens as if it was a dirigible steered by SCAP. I cannot recommend this book enough - an absolute gem on anything Japan and everything on a shattered people reclaiming themselves in a shattered land.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This book came out 4 years too early...
...were it to be modified to contrast the policies and efforts of the US in its occupation and democratization of Japan between 1945 and '52 against the present attempts to do the... Read more

Published on April 27 2004 by Christian Hunter

3.0 out of 5 stars Democracy from Above and other histories
'Embracing Defeat' is a Pulitzer price winning portrait of Japanese society after the defeat in WW2. Read more

Published on Jun 7 2003 by Omer Belsky

5.0 out of 5 stars Best history of the post WWII period in Japan...
Other reviewers have summarized this book's strengths and weaknesses. This book ranks with the best histories ever written in the 20th century. Read more

Published on April 30 2003 by Stephen Armstrong

5.0 out of 5 stars A Precedent for Today
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. Read more

Published on April 28 2003 by Emil L. Posey

4.0 out of 5 stars A detailed account of occupied Japan.
Embracing Defeat is worthy of the praise and the awards it has received. The book is an in-depth look at the occupation of Japan by American forces between 1945 and 1952. Read more

Published on April 15 2003 by Justin Harris

4.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating Yet Imperfect
.... Japan eagerly turned their backs on the failed militarism of the 1931-1945 epoch and gladly accepted the New Deal democratic values of the American bureaucracy and military... Read more

Published on Feb 19 2003 by Derek Leaberry

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding
the only flaw is that Dower brings up various radical writers and tells the reader how the writer's writings were. This book needs more, and longer, direct quotes (in trans. Read more

Published on Dec 22 2002 by Hector G. Capote

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
As non-native speaker of the japanese language, I am amazed at the amount of research that Dower must have completed for this title in the sphere of japanese documents and other... Read more

Published on Nov 6 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Read, Highly deserving of the Prize
Professor Dower has put together a marvelous book. Here he interweaves different historical narratives of post-war Japan. Read more

Published on Aug 20 2002 by Blaine G. Saito

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Social History of the Occupation of Japan
This fine book is a thematic exploration of the experience and consequences of the American occupation of Japan. Read more

Published on July 25 2002 by R. Albin

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