About the Book

Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize Finalist

Pulitzer Prize

Trained since childhood to lead his nation as a living deity, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito cultivated a detached façade which masked a fierce cunning and powerful ambition. Historian Herbert P. Bix has unearthed hundreds of previously untapped documents, including the unpublished letters and diaries of Hirohito’s royal court, shedding light on his uniquely active yet self-effacing stewardship.

Debunking the common image of Hirohito as a pawn in the hands of the military, Bix exposes the emperor’s personal involvement in every stage of the Pacific War. He shows how Hirohito avoided punishment for his nation’s defeat and how the Japanese people have struggled to come to terms with this dark chapter in their history. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan explains the impact this enigmatic figure had on Japan and its place on the world stage.

Herbert P. Bix earned his Ph.D. in history and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University. For the past thirty years, he has written extensively on modern and contemporary Japanese history in leading journals in the U.S. and Japan. He has taught Japanese history at a number of American and Japanese Universities, most recently at Harvard and the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. He lives in Winthrop, MA.

“A historical bombshell ... The most controversial book yet on Japan’s previous emperor.” — The Economist

Critical Praise

“A historical bombshell…Compelling…The most controversial book yet on Japan’s previous emperor.” — The Economist

“The author’s virtuoso scholarship and accessible narrative invite us into Hirohito’s world and change the way we think of recent history; his portrayal of a monarch rationalizing evil is superb.” — The New Yorker

“”The triumph of Mr. Bix is that of a tailor able to assemble disparate scaps of material and sew them into a seamless whole.”” — The New York Times

“Myth-shattering…[T]his superb biography should jog loose a few suppressed memories.” — Newsweek

“Nothing published since the Berlin Wall’s fall quite comes up to Herbert Bix’s new book…It’s a startling work—awesomely ambitious, faultlessly researched, daring in its thesis, and profound in its implications.” — Business Week

“Persuasive. . . . Bix proves, in an immensely readable 800 pages, that good imperial biography is still possible.” — The Times Literary Supplement

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780062560513
• ISBN 10: 0062560514
• Imprint: Harper Perennial
• On Sale: 09/27/2016
• Trimsize: 5.310 in (w) x 8.000 in (h) x 1.410 in (d)
• Pages: 880
• List Price: $24.99
• BISAC1 : HISTORY / Asia / Japan
• BISAC2 : HISTORY / Military / World War II
• BISAC3 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military