Embracing Defeat

De: John W. Dower

Narrado por: Edward Lewis

Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2000

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 1999

In this illuminating study, Dower explores the ways in which the shattering defeat of the Japanese in World War II, followed by over six years of American military occupation, affected every level of Japanese society. He describes the countless ways in which the Japanese met the challenge of "starting over", from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes, fears, and activities of ordinary men and women in every walk of life. He shows us the intense and turbulent interplay of conqueror and conquered, West and East, in a way no Western historian has done before.

This is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary moment in history, when new values warred with the old, and early ideals of demilitarization and radical reform were soon challenged by the United States' decision to incorporate Japan into the Cold War Pax Americana.

©1999 John W. Dower (P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

• Winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Non-Fiction

"A magisterial and beautifully written book....A pleasure to read." (New York Times)
"An extraordinarily illuminating book....Surely the most significant work to date on the postwar era in Japan." (Wall Street Journal)
"The writing of history doesn't get much better than this....[Dower] deftly situates the political story within a rich cultural context....The book is most remarkable, however, for the way Dower judiciously explores the complex moral and political issues....Dazzling." (Publishers Weekly)

Interesting information but a bit like a textbook

Information was interesting though I think I would have organized it differently. It was obvious chapters were recorded separately then placed together afterwards. The problem is that there was no pause between chapter to the point that he barely finished the breath on the last sentence of the chapter, then “chapter 12...”highly irritating.

Pulitzer Prize Winner!

Hey, why doesn't the description of this book even mention that it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000? This is a great history that dives into all aspects of Japan under the occupation. It goes way beyond the usual touchpoints of MacArthur, the Emperor and the Constitution to look at things like what (and how little) people ate, the black market, popular magazines, intellectual life, and the sudden reversal in American racist attitudes toward the Japanese when the war ended and democratization, rather than extermination, became the goal. I'd give it a five-star review except that the narrator simply cannot pronounce the Japanese terms properly, or even recognizably in a lot of cases, and there are a lot of Japanese terms in the book. So minus one star for the narrator.

Marvelous

This is just a fabulous book. If you have any interest at all in history or foreign cultures you'll love this.

I never knew how little I knew

This book opened my eyes to a time and place in history that I think all Americans should be aware of. There is a deep economic and cultural interconnection between the U.S. and Japan. Understanding the origins of that relationship, as well as an undercurrent of Japanese attitude towards the U.S., is only manageable with a good understanding of the occupation post war.

Lots of info but stilted reading

The book has a lot of excellent information on the occupation. The reading was a bit difficult to follow however.