| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Kenneth J. Ruoff. The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945–1995. (Harvard East Asian Monographs, number 211.) Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center; distributed by Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 2001. Pp. xiv, 331. $45.00.

The people's emperor refers not to an emperor but rather to the development of the imperial institution in postwar Japan. "It is an invented tradition, and the invention of tradition' was a significant feature in the construction of modern national identities throughout the world," including Japan (p. 255). Hirohito was head of state in Japan from 1926 until 1989, emperor of war until August 1945, and emperor of peace until his death, according to popularly accepted images. As we now know, these images were greatly influenced by the U.S. government, before and after World War II. During the war, Hirohito was vilified to arouse support among the Allies at home. After the war, he was presented as a pacifist to insure that Japan would remain in the anticommunist camp. Kenneth J. Ruoff addresses the latter period, focusing on not only Hirohito but also on his son, Akihito. 1

Individual persons are important to postwar developments, but Ruoff transcends personalities while including them: the emperor as symbol of state as opposed to the supposed prewar absolutist (in fact consensus maker), not to mention religious head of state. After the war, the emperor became, according to the constitution of 1947 dictated more or less by American occupation authorities, a symbol of the Japanese state and people. But public symbols and politics are difficult to separate. . . .

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