Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1999

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction

Part I, Chapters 1-2

Part II, Chapters 3-5

Part III, Chapters 6-8

Part IV, Chapters 9-14

Part V, Chapters 15-16

Part VI, Chapter 17

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

IntroductionChapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction Summary

In his Introduction to Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, John W. Dower accomplishes two goals. First, he highlights the key aspects of Japanese history during the period 1853-1952. This period covers Japan’s rapid modernization, imperial transformation and conquest, the Second World War, and the aftermath, respectively. Second, the author discusses his study’s important themes. He analyzes Japanese militarism that led to this country’s significant expansion in this period as well as some of the cultural aspects that stalled its imminent surrender in 1945.

Japan’s first substantial contact with the Europeans occurred in the middle of the 16th century when the Portuguese arrived in Japan; their arrival was part of Early Modern European exploration, conquest, and imperialism. However, subsequently, Japan remained a relatively closed country under the feudal shogun—military rulers. In 1868, dissident samurai removed these feudal lords and formed a different government led by an emperor; Dower highlights the striking rise of Japan in the aftermath of this change in leadership. By 1895, Japan “brought China to its knees” and established its first colony, Formosa, in present-day Taiwan (19). Russia suffered military defeat in the Russo-Japanese war a mere decade later. Korea was annexed in 1910. Japan not only mimicked the behavior of key western European powers but soon joined them at the Paris Peace Conference (1919) alongside the other World War I Allies.

Japan expanded into Manchuria in 1931, followed by a full-scale assault on China in 1937 and by the Pearl Harbor attack on the United States in 1941. At its height, imperial Japan stretched from China to the Pacific and from the Aleutian Islands in the north to the colonial enclaves in South East Asia. Dower argues that it was this overextension that led to the collapse of imperial Japan—and to its leaders’ inability to face surrender.

Japan’s ferocity in the war, such as the Rape of Nanking (1937), was matched only by its self-destruction, such as killing one’s own wounded so that the enemy could not access them. Measuring a war’s human casualty is the most fundamental way to assess its legacy in the Pacific theater, argues Dower; China lost approximately 15 million, whereas Japan—3 million.

Introduction Analysis

Dower’s Introduction provides a cogent overview of this book. He intends to weave an engaging narrative that goes beyond factual understanding. Indeed, Dower emphasizes the exaggerated way that Japan is often perceived as a unique and exotic place. Dower intends the Japanese lived experience—in all its diversity and without reductive stereotypes—to play a central role in this study. This focus on the ordinary participants of major historical events is part of a relatively newer trend in historical writing in general. Indeed, older historical accounts often presented grand narratives focusing on the leaders.

Despite the book’s focus on diverse experiences, it has unifying themes. One of them is the Japanese population’s widespread repulsion from war and militarism. Certain cultural traditions and values, such as the utmost importance of honor, underpinned Japanese militarism. Some Japanese soldiers thus chose to kill themselves rather than surrender—and to kill the wounded rather than leave them for the enemy. However, after more than a dozen years of imperial conquests, many Japanese had had enough.

Dower’s other key goal is to challenge the trend of relegating early post-1945 Japan to a secondary role in historical narratives. American authors’ historical accounts typically focus on the American Century—that is, the United States’ rise to superpower status at this time—and these accounts leave Japan in the background during the Cold War period. The author contributes to scholarship on Japan by evaluating its role in the early postwar period.