Embracing Defeat
{{Short description|1999 history book by John W. Dower}}
{{Infobox book |
| name = Embracing Defeat
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Book Cover for Embracing Defeat.jpg
| image_size = 150px
| caption = First edition cover
| author = John W. Dower
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| genre = History
| publisher = W.W. Norton & Co.
| release_date = 1999
| media_type = Print (hardcover)
| pages = 676
| isbn = 978-0-393-32027-5
| preceded_by = The Bombed: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese Memory, Diplomatic History 19, no. 2
| followed_by = Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq
}}
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II is a history book written by John W. Dower and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1999.{{cite book | last =Dower | first =John W. | author-link =John W. Dower | title =Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II | publisher =W. W. Norton & Company | year =1999 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/embracingdefeatj00dowe/page/676 676] pages | url =https://archive.org/details/embracingdefeatj00dowe | url-access =registration | quote =Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. | isbn = 0-393-04686-9 }} The book covers the difficult social, economic, cultural and political situation of Japan in the aftermath of World War II and the nation's occupation by the Allies between August 1945 and April 1952, delving into topics such as the administration of Douglas MacArthur, the Tokyo war crimes trials, Hirohito's controversial Humanity Declaration and the drafting of the new Constitution of Japan.
Reception
Described by The New York Times as "magisterial and beautifully written,"{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/reviews/990704.704stockt.html?_r=2&oref=slogin|title=This Space Occupied| work =The New York Times|date=1999-07-04}} the book won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction,{{cite web | title = Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Nonfiction | publisher =pulitzer.org | url =http://www.pulitzer.org/ | format =web | access-date = 2008-03-13 }} the 1999 National Book Award,{{cite web | title = National Book Awards – 1999 | publisher =National Book Foundation | year =2012 | url =https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1999 | format =web | access-date = 2012-02-20}} (With acceptance speech.) the 2000 Bancroft Prize,{{cite web|title=The Bancroft Prizes; Previous Awards |publisher=Columbia University Libraries |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/amerihist/bancroftlist.html |format=web |access-date=2008-03-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714142518/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/amerihist/bancroftlist.html |archive-date=2007-07-14 }} the 2000 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, the Mark Lynton History Prize and the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.{{cite web | title =1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners | work =Los Angeles Times | year =2007 | url =http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes/winners1999.html | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20020604080448/http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes/winners1999.html | url-status =dead | archive-date =2002-06-04 | format =web | access-date = 2008-03-13 }}
Steven Tolliday sees the book as a rare example of a book that shows the post-war years from a Japanese perspective, and writes that it is a "massively researched and beautifully illustrated book".{{cite web |last1=Tolliday |first1=Steven |title=Embracing Defeat. Japan in the Wake of World War Two {{!}} Reviews in History |url=https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/90 |website=reviews.history.ac.uk |access-date=29 May 2024 |language=en}} Dower's writing is called "elegant, informative and easy to follow". Martyn Smith considers it to be "an outstanding account of US-Japan relations in the aftermath of the war and a useful guide to understanding the trans-national nature of Japan’s rise to economic superpower".{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Martyn |title=Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II {{!}} Reviews in History |url=https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/2037 |website=reviews.history.ac.uk |access-date=29 May 2024}}
Michael Schaller noted that Dower "uses not only a rich array of period photographs but also art, comic books, poetry, letters, and journals from the 1940s to examine how the Japanese coped with hunger, homelessness, and despair in the wake of surrender. In the process, Dower delves into the technical and human dimensions of the black market, prostitution, the treatment of demobilized soldiers, the blossoming of literature despite a rigid and often mindless censorship that barred virtually any discussion of the nuclear bombs' impact, and the evolution of language to accommodate Japan's radically altered circumstances."{{cite web |last1=Schaller |first1=Michael |title=Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9149/pdf |website=Journal of Cold War Studies |access-date=29 May 2024 |pages=108–109 |date=2000}} J. A. A. Stockwin in his review for The New York Times calls it a "richly nuanced book" and writes that "Dower adopts a critical view of the occupation, but, interestingly, he is plainly enamored of the sheer democratic panache of that Constitution and of the largely -- though not wholly -- successful efforts of Government Section bureaucrats to prevent the Japanese Government from subtly undermining its key provisions".
Publication
- {{cite book | last = Dower|first= John W| author-link =John W. Dower | title =Embracing defeat: Japan in the wake of World War II|year= 1999|edition= 2003| publisher = W.W. Norton & Co| isbn= 978-0-393-32027-5}} Total pages: 676.
See also
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{OL work}}
- [https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/d/dower-defeat.html First Chapter]
- [https://www.c-span.org/video/?155311-1/embracing-defeat Interview with Dower on Embracing Defeat], Booknotes, March 26, 2000
{{Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction}}
Category:History books about World War II
Category:History books about Japan
Category:Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction–winning works
Category:National Book Award for Nonfiction–winning works
Category:1999 non-fiction books
Category:W. W. Norton & Company books
Category:Bancroft Prize–winning works
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