Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

The stories about ordinary Japanese add an empathetic dimension to the sea of facts usually found in history books. Rather than solely focusing on the actions of leadership, describing the lives of those swept up in paradigm shifts improves our understanding of history and our place in it. Dower also presents the diversity of experiences to underscore social complexity. For instance, the response to the emperor’s speech ranged from sorrowful expressions to open cheering. Even the Japanese exaltation of an honorable death did not result in mass suicide. Dower confirms that several hundred officers did die by their own hand, but this number was lower than expected in light of that militarist custom.

The farmer’s wife’s experience also contextualizes the extent to which the Japanese imperial government went with its militaristic indoctrination. Because soldiers were taught that death was preferable to surrender, many military wives were terrified of losing their husbands—not in combat but from suicide during the surrender. Dower extends his analysis of Japanese indoctrination from this period when he quotes the Imperial Rescript of Education; Japanese children repeated it at school on a daily basis and, therefore, had it memorized by heart: “Should any emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the State” (33). Therefore, subordination of oneself to the state—embodied by the emperor—is one of the running themes during the 1931-1945 war. The Japanese were not just citizens but also Hirohito’s subjects.

Emperor Hirohito is important to Dower’s analysis as a symbol of both the Japanese surrender and the country’s transformation in the postwar period. During Japan’s violent expansion, Emperor Hirohito framed the invasion of Manchuria and, later, the war against the US and its European Allies, as one that would create a stable Asia through something akin to a holy war. Framing surrender thus required locating a different ideology and different language. Furthermore, Hirohito relied on the use of veiled language for propagandistic purposes. He exploitatively reframed Japan’s defeat to promote himself as “the symbol of the nation’s suffering” (36). Dower analyzes language and communication throughout this entire book to compare the war-era and postwar Japanese society.

At times, Dower surpasses historical writing and ventures into the realm of evocative symbolism. He parallels the physical appearance of the diplomat Shigemitsu Mamoru with the state of Japan. This comparison almost functions as the literary device of metonymy, in which a part is used to represent the whole:

Shigemitsu had lost a leg in 1932 in a bomb attack by a Korean protesting Japan’s colonization of his country, and his awkward gait on the rolling deck of the American battleship conveyed an uncanny impression of a crippled and vulnerable Japan (40).

Dower’s writing is sprinkled with many other comparisons adding to the rich quality of his writing. For instance, he parallels the “bonfires of documents” burnt by the Japanese government officials’ attempt to downplay their actions during the war to “napalm’s hellfires” (39).

This chapter does not specifically address the nuclear attacks (ordered by President Truman) on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. On the one hand, the author establishes that much of Japan—especially its urban, residential areas—was bombed indiscriminately, as was the case with the firebombing of Tokyo. The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki thus fit into the broader pattern of Allied methods of warfare. Indeed, Americans were shocked by the extent of the destruction and suffering in Japan. Notwithstanding, these bombings truly marked the start of the nuclear age as a demonstration of American military power—and, by this point of the war, Japan was clearly defeated regardless of formally announced surrender. In addition to American victories in this military theater, the USSR had also joined the Allied effort in the Far East. Therefore, ordering a nuclear bombing was unnecessary for Truman’s policy of “unconditional surrender” (40)—a policy in which the surrendering party receives no guarantees of clemency. The use of nuclear weapons can therefore be interpreted as punitive, and it exacerbated the humanitarian disaster in Japan, which the author addressed.

The figures of Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur both dramatize running themes throughout this text. Their respective personalities and political (and symbolic) status helped shape postwar Japan. While Japan’s two main religions—its ancient nature religion, Shinto, and Buddhism—do not have a God in the Christian sense, Japanese emperors were believed to have a direct link to their ancestors, and the two script characters forming the Japanese word for “emperor,” tennō, literally mean “heavenly sovereign.” Therefore, Hirohito did not have the divine right of kings in the Western sense but remained a revered figure and symbol in the postwar period. For this reason, Dower emphasizes the ordinary Japanese not just as citizens of Japan but as Hirohito’s subjects.

Hirohito’s transformation from a militarist ruler to a symbol of peace and democracy plays an important role later in Embracing Defeat. The transformation was an American-led initiative spearheaded by none other than General MacArthur. MacArthur’s personality and communication skills directly contrast with Hirohito; Hirohito used veiled language, whereas MacArthur was straightforward. The emperor was socially awkward, whereas the SCAP was self-assured bordering on arrogance. Yet these two very different men—an older conqueror and a younger conquered—became unlikely associates during the American occupation period in order to stabilize Japan. Moreover, each of them had considerable political power—one as a symbol of Japan, and the other as the leader of the occupation force.