Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of WWII by John W. Dower

During the euphemistic surrender announcement, Emperor Hirohito presented Japan's capitulation as nothing less than a magnanimous act that saves humanity from annihilation by an atrocious adversary. It is amazing to witness how Japan, as a nation, worked with its previous enemy and reborn into the democratic society that it is today. 

If you look at the democratic nations today, most of them had raised revolutions, fighting for democracy at some point in history. However, Japan hasn’t. Ironically, Japan’s democratic structure was “imposed” on them during the occupation of the US after WWII. This is an extremely interesting phenomenon. 

The early occupation of the US emerges as the boldest, and in many ways, quixotic. America's attempt at social engineering another society into a democratic nation is both incisiveness and ironic. They imposed a root-and-branch agenda of “demilitarization and democratization” that was in every sense a remarkable display of arrogant idealism, yet genuinely visionary.

Several chapters demonstrated how the Japanese and American found a common interest in protecting and redefining the role of the emperor and Imperial institutions in an emerging democracy. A description of how American officers and their families participated in the Imperial duck hunt in Tokyo is by itself worth the price of the book! On the less playful side, Dower explores how shielding the emperor from culpability for the war and its atrocities--a priority for both General Douglas MacArthur and the Truman administration--mitigated and confused the meaning of the Tokyo war crimes trials.

This book really changed my views about Japan, and especially it’s complicated yet interesting relationship with the United States as you can see from the examples above.