Reviews for The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945-1995

The average rating for The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945-1995 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-08 00:00:00 Priscilla Mutnansky A very accessible portrait of the Japanese royal family post-World War II. Ruoff shows superbly how the passive change in the symbolic significance and weltanschauung of emperors Hirohito and Akihito in the aftermath of Japan's reconstruction helped to craft the country as a pacifist, constructive nation. The efforts of the imperial family encouraged and helped facilitate the modernization that catapulted Japan's economy to #2 in the world. However, Ruoff also uncovers the classic Japanese trick of re-making their own tradition-in this case of casting emperor Hirohito as a pacifist who was pro-peace during the war period (which is far from the truth). We see a similar scheme at work later on when the role of the royal family is compared to pre-Meiji times, yet many Japanese realize they do not even have a sense of what that 'traditional' role for their emperor should be. It wasn't until the Meiji era that the emperor began to play an active role in politics, yet he/she was largely disconnected from the politics of the country in almost all periods of Japanese history prior to that.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-25 00:00:00 Rahul Gupta Compelling, well-researched and accessible critical assessment of the impact of Japanese propaganda during and just after World War II, including some comparison to the competing propaganda of the times. Kushner argues against the more common notions that the Japanese people were driven to and sustained through war by government and military propaganda centred primarily on emperor-worship and racism. He asserts instead that it was nationalistic pride in Japan's superior progress and modernity that allowed the populous to mobilize for war as a nation and to also accept defeat and American occupation so readily.